How Peacekeepers Fight: Assessing Combat Effectiveness in United Nations Peace Operations

IF 2.2 2区社会学 Q1 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Security Studies Pub Date : 2023-01-01 DOI:10.1080/09636412.2023.2178965

Paul D. Williams

引用次数: 4

Abstract

Abstract Contrary to popular perceptions, United Nations (UN) peacekeepers engage in combat fairly frequently. A central challenge facing the UN is thus calibration between force and politics: ensuring the organization’s combat power is harnessed to viable political strategies for peace. However, the epistemic community on peacekeeping remains deeply divided between skeptics and proponents of “robust” operations, where peacekeepers are expected to use force to implement mission mandates. This article suggests that militarily effective, robust peacekeeping is most important for improving civilian protection and ensuring mission credibility in theaters where there is no peace to keep; proposes a novel framework and typology to assess combat effectiveness in UN peace operations; and compiles descriptive statistics for the 1948–2020 period. Finally, case studies of four battles involving UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo illuminate the conditions that are conducive to the UN’s combat effectiveness.

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维和人员如何作战:评估联合国和平行动的战斗力

摘要与普遍看法相反，联合国维和人员经常参与战斗。因此，联合国面临的一个核心挑战是在武力和政治之间进行校准：确保该组织的战斗力被用于可行的和平政治战略。然而，关于维和的认识界仍然存在严重分歧，既有怀疑论者，也有“强有力”行动的支持者，维和人员将使用武力执行特派团任务。这篇文章表明，在没有和平可言的战区，军事上有效、有力的维和行动对于改善平民保护和确保特派团的信誉至关重要；提出了评估联合国和平行动战斗力的新框架和类型；并汇编了1948年至2020年期间的描述性统计数据。最后，对联合国维和人员在刚果民主共和国的四场战斗的案例研究阐明了有利于联合国战斗力的条件。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Security Studies INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS-

CiteScore

2.70

自引率

16.70%

发文量

期刊介绍： Security Studies publishes innovative scholarly manuscripts that make a significant contribution – whether theoretical, empirical, or both – to our understanding of international security. Studies that do not emphasize the causes and consequences of war or the sources and conditions of peace fall outside the journal’s domain. Security Studies features articles that develop, test, and debate theories of international security – that is, articles that address an important research question, display innovation in research, contribute in a novel way to a body of knowledge, and (as appropriate) demonstrate theoretical development with state-of-the art use of appropriate methodological tools. While we encourage authors to discuss the policy implications of their work, articles that are primarily policy-oriented do not fit the journal’s mission. The journal publishes articles that challenge the conventional wisdom in the area of international security studies. Security Studies includes a wide range of topics ranging from nuclear proliferation and deterrence, civil-military relations, strategic culture, ethnic conflicts and their resolution, epidemics and national security, democracy and foreign-policy decision making, developments in qualitative and multi-method research, and the future of security studies.

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