ISBN 92-808-1067-7 2001, 280 pages US$29.95, paper

This volume explores the evolution of peace-keeping, particularly since the early 1990s.

“Thakur and Schnabel’s edited volume provides an inspired, timely and comprehensive overview of critical issues facing the United Nations in relation to its involvement in peacekeeping operations. "The six generation model of peacekeeping offered by the editors is original and helpful, and the focus on the need for prevention and the impact on peace-building – and not just the mechanics of peacekeeping operations – is particularly welcome. "The book would be a very useful teaching tool in international relations, strategic studies and peace and conflict studies, with its clear and accessible writing style and forward-looking analyses.” Wendy Lambourne (University of Sydney), Political Studies Review vol.1 no.3, Sept. 2003.

This period was characterized by much initial enthusiasm and hopes for a United Nations that would find a more agreeable international environment for effective and sustained operations to secure peace where it existed, and to provide peace where it did not. Peace-keeping has always been one of the most visible symbols of the UN role in international peace and security. And it was disappointment with the performance of UN peace-keeping operations which was to become symbolic of the UN’s failure to emerge from the ashes of the Cold War as a rejuvenated key player in international and, increasingly, internal peace and security.

United Nations Peace-keeping Operations reflects some of the thinking, some of the experiences in the UN and in the field, some of the frustrations, and some of the hopes of this past decade. It combines academic analysis, field experience, and reflection with forward-looking proposals (including the suggestions of, and responses to, the recent Brahimi Report) for more effective peace operations designed and deployed by the UN in partnership with regional, sub-regional, and local actors. The various chapters in this book confirm the reality of differences among academics, international civil servants, and generals in their respective cultures of reflection, introspection, and analysis.

The first part of the book outlines the challenges of post-Cold War peace-keeping; the second part sheds light on regional experiences of peace-keeping missions, with an emphasis on the post-Soviet region and Africa. In the third part practitioners with extensive field experience share their specific experiences in Cambodia, former Yugoslavia, and East Timor. Part four takes stock of the recent record of UN peacekeeping, and of the UN’s own attempt to analyze, evaluate, and reform its performance in peace operations.

Ramesh Thakur is Head of the Peace and Governance Programme and Vice Rector of the United Nations University, Tokyo.

Albrecht Schnabel is Academic Programme Officer in the Peace and Governance Programme of the United Nations University.

Table of Contents: Part One: Challenges of post-Cold War peacekeeping
- Cascading generations of peacekeeping: Across the Mogadishu line to Kosovo and Timor
- Peacekeeping and the violence in ethnic conflict
- The role in the UN Secretariat in organizing peacekeeping Policing the peace

Part Two: Regional experiences
- Regional peacekeeping in the CIS
- Peace operations in Africa: Addressing the doctrinal deficit
- establishing the credibility of a regional peacekeeping capability

Part Three: Experiences from Cambodia, former Yugoslavia and East Timor
- The politics of UN peacekeeping from Cambodia to Yugoslavia
- The Cambodian experience: A success story still?
- UN peacekeeping operations in the former Yugoslavia - From UNPROFOR to Kosovo
- Civilian police in the UN peace operations: Lessons from recent Australian experience

Part Four: A new beginning? The road to Brahimi and beyond
- Peacekeeping and the changing role of the UN: Four dilemmas
- From An agenda for Peace to the Brahimi Report: Towards a new era of UN peace operations?

Contributors:

Roger MacGinty
Gillian Robinson
Hisako Shimura
Michael O'Connor
S. Neil MacFarlane
Mark Malan
Vere Hayes
Yasushi Akashi
John Sanderson
Satish Nambiar
John McFarlane
William Maley
Margaret P. Karns
Karen A. Mingst