A Critique of the Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations

Abstract

Given the express commitment in the United Nations Charter ("Charter") to the preservation of international peace, it is understandable that the United Nations ("UN") was driven to engage in peacekeeping. In fact, the UN has engaged in fifty-three peacekeeping operations since its inception in 1945, with thirty-five of these taking place in the last decade. The acceleration in the use of peacekeeping operations coupled with increased costs have created if not a crisis, then at least a very serious problem for the UN. This has been recognized at the highest level in this international organization as made evident by the Secretary-General's convening of "a high-level Panel to undertake a thorough review of the UN's peace and security activities, and to present a clear set of specific, concrete and practical recommendations to assist the United Nations in conducting such activities in the future." This Blue Ribbon Panel ("BRP"), in turn, transmitted its response to the Secretary-General by August 17, 2000. In what follows, after looking briefly at parts of the Charter as well as some comments of U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, I shall summarize and evaluate the recent Proposal of the BRP on UN Peacekeeping Operations. My evaluation of this proposal will be unorthodox, for it will, besides making what could be called conventional criticisms, highlight problems with the proposal when applied to the cetiological and security issues of peacekeeping. I shall attempt to illustrate these problems in relation to the issue of involuntary population transfer.