Dysfunction Junction: Intelligence, Peacekeeping, and the United Nations
Abstract
United Nations (UN) peace operations continue to play a vital role in international security, with 15 missions underway in 2007. The UN, however, lacks the institutional intelligence capacity to provide guidance, high-level assessments, and tactical/operational intelligence support for the over 100,000 peacekeepers around the world. The UN's lack of focused capabilities is particularly surprising in the post-9/11 world and the 2003 bombing of its headquarters in Iraq. Since the UN's first foray into peacekeeping in 1948, member states, fearful of violations of their sovereignty, have blocked previous reform attempts. This has forced UN operations to rely on ad hoc measures to meet their intelligence requirements, while the Secretary General and Security Council are at the mercy of member state intelligence agencies for their information. Despite this handicap, some improvements have been made, particularly at the mission level. Further, Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) holds great promise for addressing many of the UN's intelligence requirements. This study concludes that the UN would be well-served by adopting the existing NATO model for OSINT production, enabling the organization to effectively collate and analyze the vast information stores at its fingertips.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2007
- Accession Number
- ADA473962
Entities
People
- Steven E. Maceda
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School