The New UN Peacekeeping: Building Peace in Lands of Conflict After the Cold War

By Steven R. Ratner

As the United Nations passes its fiftieth anniversary, it has undergone a sea change in its approach toward peacekeeping. Originally a stopgap measure to preserve a cease-fire, peacekeeping has, since the waning of the Cold War, become a means to implement an agreed political solution to conflict between antagonists. Placed inside war-torn states, UN peacekeepers have encountered manifold new challenges through oversight of elections, protection of human rights, and reconstructing of governmental administration. In this study, Steven R. Ratner offers a comprehensive framework for scholars, policy-makers, and all those seeking to understand this new peacekeeping. He sees the UN as an administrator, mediator, and guarantor of political settlements - roles that can conflict when peace accords unravel, as is all too common. He describes the numerous actors, inside and outside the UN, who are engaged in this process, often with competing interests. And in historical review, beginning with the League of Nations, he reveals many striking precedents long before the 1990s. In the central case-study, Ratner applies his thesis to the most ambitious UN operation completed, the Cambodia mission of 1991-93. After reconstructing the process leading to the massive UN role, he reviews and appraises its performance, offering a sophisticated critique demonstrating the dangers of quick 'success' or 'failure' verdicts. With the experiences of those operations in mind, he concludes with a set of compelling recommendations for the UN's members.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312124155
• ISBN13: 9780312124151
• Release Date: March 1995
• Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
• Length: 322 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Interesting and lucid account of UN peacekeeping operations

Ratner's book comes in four parts. Sections one and two present a quick but complete history of UN peacekeeping operations and the conceptual framework that produced them. The third gives a detailed analysis of the UN's effort to bring peace and stability to Cambodia in the early 1990s after decades of conflict. The last section offers a brief but insightful examination of the potential problems and opportunities for future UN peacekeeping missions.Ratner is neither a blind advocate of unchecked UN intervention nor a partisan 'UN basher' that believes the UN is incapable of bringing some benefits to those nations wanting assistance. He provides a set of fair and well-reasoned standards for evaluating the success of UN peacekeeping operations. He then applies those standards and lets the chips fall where they may.The book finds a perfect middle ground between dense scholarly writing and compelling narrative. Thus, the book should appeal to both academics investigating UN peacekeeping operations and the general reader just wishing to know more about those folks who wear the blue helmets.