Peace+Keeping

Created by Keenan Strand

=** Peace Keeping **=


 * Peacekeeping ** is an activity that aims to create the conditions for lasting peace. Peacekeepers observe peace processes in post-conflict areas as well as help ex-combatants in implementing any peace treaties they may have signed. They provide many things such as confidence-building measures, power-sharing arrangements, electoral support, strengthening the rule of law, and economic and social development. UN peacekeepers, often referred to as Blue Berets, can include soldiers, police officers, and civilian personnel.

Cost
The cost of peacekeeping has risen drastically since the end of the Cold War. In 1993, annual peacekeeping costs peaked at $3.6 billion. By 1998 costs had dropped to just bellow $1 billion. Costs rose more between 2001-2004 but by 2006, UN peacekeeping had reached a price of $5.03 billion US dollars.

Peace Keeping during the Cold War
United Nations peace keeping was initially developed during the Cold War in order to resolve conflict between states by deploying unarmed or lightly armed military personnel, to areas were warring countries were in need of a neutral party to observe the peace process. The first peace keeping mission was during 1948, troops were sent to the newly created state of Israel, where conflict between the Israeli and Arab states over control of Israel had just reached a ceasefire. As the Korean War ended with the Korean Armistice Agreement in 1953,UN forces remained along the south side of the demilitarized zone, until the American and South Koreans forces took over in 1967. The UN returned its focus towards the Israeli, Arab conflict. During the ceasefire on 1957, Canadian Diplomat, Lester B. Pearson suggested to the UN to station peace keeping forces in the Suez, to make sure the ceasefire was honored by both sides. Pearson won a Nobel Peace Prize, today he is considered the father of modern peace keeping. In 1988 the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the United Nations peacekeeping forces, press stated that the forces "represent the manifest will of the community of nations" and have "made a decisive contribution" to resolve conflict around the world.

Since 1991
By the end of the Cold War, the Security Council had established larger and more complex UN peacekeeping missions. The missions were usually to help implement peace agreements between protagonists in intra-State conflicts and civil wars. Peacekeeping also began to develop into a more and more non-military operation, instead they resided to more proper civil functions and elections. The UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations was created in 1992 in order to support the rising demand for such peacekeeping missions. Many of the new operations were successful, such as El Salvador and Mozambique, because it achieved a more self-sustaining peace. The failures, most notably the 1994 Rwanda genocide, 1995 massacre in Srebrenica and the Bosnia and Herzegovina, led to a period of retrenchment and self-examination in UN peacekeeping. The failures led to the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission, which worked of stabilizing peacekeeping missions.

Potential Harm of the Troops
There have been concerns about the overall safety of the peacekeepers because peacekeeping can be very stressful. Due to peacekeepers being exposed to danger caused by warring parties in unfamiliar areas, rises of mental health issues, suicide, and substance abuse has been noticed in a percentage of former peacekeepers. Even though peacekeepers are acting on UN mandate, they still have a chance to become targets for attacks by some parties in conflict. Other concern is that peacekeeping may soften troops and erode combat abilities, making their abilities to defend themselves less prominent than a unit fighting in an all out war.

Peacekeeping, Human trafficking, Forced prostitution
Rapid increase in prostitution in Cambodia, Mozambique, Bosnia, and Kosovo, after the UN and NATO forces moved in, has been noticed. "In 6 out of 12 country studies on sexual exploitation of children in situations of armed conflict prepared for the present report, the arrival of peacekeeping troops has been associated with a rapid rise in child prostitution." quoted by Graca Machel, 1996, the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children.

[] [] [|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations#Peacekeeping_and_security]