The Helmets May Be Blue, But the Blood's Still Red: The Dilemma of US Participation in UN Peace Operations
Abstract
The end of the Cold War compelled the United States to initiate a fundamental reassessment of the decision-making frameworks it had adopted to formulate and implement foreign and national security policies. This "starting from zero" approach was necessitated by discontinuities in Washington's objectives, strategies, and instruments for international relations created by the passing of the Cold War. An example of the changing patterns of international behavior in the "new world order" was the sudden prominence of United Nations (UN) peace operations. A seldom used tool of collective action under the UN aegis historically, only 13 operations were established between 1948 and 1978, and no new missions were initiated during the subsequent decade. Peace operations during this period occupied a minor place in America's world policy agenda, but all of that changed with the end of the Cold War. Freed from the paralysis of the U.S.-USSR stand-off and rocked by the eruption of violence that accompanied the collapse of enforced stability within the Soviet Union and the geographic areas it controlled, the UN gained new importance in global peace and security matters. One element was the proliferation of UN peace operations. Twenty have been established by the UN Security Council since 1988 -- a record number -- virtually all of which are still active. Peace operations are generally acknowledged to operate as an instrument that facilitates both the cessation of violence between contesting parties and the settlement of their disputes. The growing use of this technique to peacefully resolve conflict in contemporary international affairs, however, has raised significant problems for the United States in establishing policies that will govern its role in such actions. This study is intended to examine several key contentious elements in ongoing U.S. deliberations over participating in UN peace operations.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1994
- Accession Number
- ADA444146
Entities
People
- Bob Warrington
Organizations
- National War College