Judicious Engagement: The Road to Enduring Peace
Abstract
Since the end of the Cold War, an upsurge of intra-state conflicts have posed the greatest challenge to enduring peace the international community sought to achieve. The peace dividends nations expected were far short of reality. This paper argues that the U.S. must maintain its judicious engagement in the international community for legitimacy, stability, and democracy are key to its prosperity. Since its inception, the United Nations has conducted 54 peace operations of which 14 are ongoing. Few of these operations are seen as a success. The United States in many cases was reluctantly drawn into conflict or intervention. President Bush during his presidential campaign took an anti-interventionist stance on peace operations in various regions of the world, citing its toll on the military readiness and its links to regional security. Once in office, President George W. Bush took care to reassure U.S. allies of its resolve to regional security and his continuing support to current commitments, specifically in the Balkans. With Somalia, Northern Iraq, Haiti, Bosnia, East Timor, and Kosovo under its belt, the U.S. now faces another potential crisis in the Afghanistan war on terrorism. What lessons from the previous crises should the U.S. apply in the post-Taliban Afghanistan? Many experts now conclude that U.S. policy toward Afghanistan after the Soviet defeat did much to create the present crisis of terrorism. This paper attempts to draw some conclusions from the analysis of the Bosnia and Somalia crises and make some recommendations based on lessons learned.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 09, 2002
- Accession Number
- ADA402106
Entities
People
- Chelsea Y. Chae
Organizations
- United States Army War College