Failing Before Beginning

Abstract

The success or failure of a peacekeeping operation can be preordained even before the blue helmets arrive on the scene of the conflict. These predeployment factors can be either particular to the UN and the way it operates or specific to the conflict in question. Among the former are the UN’s process of deciding where to intervene, the mandate given the peacekeepers, who is chosen to lead and participate in the mission and how it is planned. The latter factors, the conflict-specific ones, will be examined in the next chapter. In PKOs initiated prior to the end of the Cold War in 1991, there were three sources of requests for UN peacekeeping missions: Security Council initiatives to quell a conventional conflict, independent requests from the local parties, and agreements brokered by third parties who then sought UN assistance in implementing those agreements. The Security Council initiatives before 1991 were all begun in response to wars in the Middle East and represented about a quarter of PKOs undertaken. Requests from local parties made up another quarter. The remaining half resulted from requests to help implement brokered agreements between the parties in a civil war. Since 1991, the sources of requests for peacekeeping missions have changed dramatically as a result of the changing nature of war.