In The Oxford Handbook of United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, editors Joachim A. Koops, Norrie MacQueen, Thierry Tardy and Paul D. Williams offer a major reference work that provides factual details and evaluations of each UN peacekeeping operation deployed up to 2013. Comprised of seventy-two chapters and over nine hundred pages in length, this is an invaluable study for scholars interested in the history and outcomes of peacekeeping, writes Gary Wilson

Wilson, Gary

LSE Research Online

blogs.lse.ac.ukhttp://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2016/01/14/book-review-the-oxford-handbook-of-united-nations-peacekeeping-operations-edited-by-joachim-a-koops-et-al/Book Review: The Oxford Handbook of United NationsPeacekeeping Operations edited by Joachim A. Koops et alIn The Oxford Handbook of United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, editors Joachim A. Koops, NorrieMacQueen, Thierry Tardy and Paul D. Williams offer a major reference work that provides factual details andevaluations of each UN peacekeeping operation deployed up to 2013. Comprised of seventy-two chapters and overnine hundred pages in length, this is an invaluable study for scholars interested in the history and outcomes ofpeacekeeping, writes Gary Wilson.The Oxford Handbook of United Nations Peacekeeping Operations. Joachim A. Koops, Norrie MacQueen,Thierry Tardy and Paul D. Williams (eds). Oxford University Press. 2015.This volume is the latest offering from the Oxford Handbooks series, with similarpublications already existing for the United Nations more broadly, the EuropeanUnion, the World Trade Organisation, International Relations and Diplomacy. As withthese other volumes, The Oxford Handbook of United Nations PeacekeepingOperations is intended to serve as a major reference work and totals some seventy-two chapters and in excess of nine hundred pages. The editors of the volume note intheir introduction that ‘peacekeeping is arguably the most visible activity of the UnitedNations’. It is difficult to disagree with this assertion, making a major work that detailsthe principles and aims of peacekeeping and explores their evolution throughsuccessive generations very welcome.The seventy-two chapters which comprise the volume have been written by adiverse array of contributors from a range of backgrounds and disciplines whocollectively share an enormous wealth of experience and/or expertise in matterspertaining to UN peacekeeping. They include academics, diplomats and militaryofficers. The book is structured into two distinct parts. Part One is titled ‘Conceptsand Perspectives’, and consists of five chapters which explore some of the key thematic issues relevant to UNpeacekeeping. Part Two comprises the bulk of the text, and for each UN peacekeeping operation up to 2013 a briefchapter summarising its main features and activities is provided.In Chapter One, Alex J. Bellamy and Paul D. Williams explore trends in peacekeeping operations from their firstinception to the present day. Drawing on statistical data, they consider the locations in which peacekeeping operationshave been deployed, the types of operations and their duration, and make comparisons between UN and non-UNoperations. There is no express UN Charter basis for UN peacekeeping and in Chapter Two, Nigel D. White considersits status in international law, pinpointing the legal norms applicable to peacekeeping under UN auspices. The thirdchapter, by Joachim A. Koops and Thierry Tardy, is concerned with inter-organisational relations in peacekeepingprocesses. Although peacekeeping is most prominently associated with the UN, increasingly other organisations havecome to undertake such functions – for example, the European Union, the African Union and NATO – and thechallenges posed by these initiatives are given some attention here. In the next chapter, Thomas G. Weiss examinesthe humanitarian functions increasingly performed by peacekeeping operations, noting the need to maintain cleardistinctions between the institutions of peacekeeping and humanitarian intervention, whilst acknowledging the impactof the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ doctrine on peacekeeping. The fifth chapter sees Paul F. Diehl and Daniel Druckmanattempt to provide a framework against which the relative success of peacekeeping operations might be measured.Image Credit: UN Peacekeepers Day 2013 Celebration in the DR Congo (MONUSCO)Part Two’s systematic analysis of the sixty-seven UN peacekeeping operations created  between 1948 and 2013 isbroken down into four distinct historical periods, each preceded by a brief overview from the editors of the mainthemes and developments of the period in question. The first period covers the early years of the UN and spans fromthe creation of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation (UNTSO) in 1948 to that of the United NationsYemen Observation Mission (UNYOM) in 1963. During this period, as the editors note, UN peacekeeping emerged asa significant but limited contribution to international efforts to maintain peace and security. The early operations werebased on the core traditional principles of neutrality, consent to deployment on the part of the states upon whoseterritory the operations would be based and the non-use of force by peacekeepers other than in self-defence. Thisenabled peacekeeping to plug some of the gap caused by inactivity on the part of the UN due to the paralysis of theSecurity Council during the superpower struggle. The second distinct period covers the remainder of the Cold War eraup until 1987. Relatively few new operations were created during this time, although peacekeeping became moreinstitutionalised and some notable operations were nonetheless established, including the United NationsPeacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP). This operation remains in place today, which perhaps speaks for itscontinued relevance, although it also reinforces the lack of any resolution to the situation that gave rise to its creationin the first place.The end of the Cold War brought a new wave of opportunities for the United Nations to make a greater contribution tothe maintenance of international peace and security. The expansion of peacekeeping formed a key part of the UN’spost-Cold War agenda as operations undertook a broader range of functions and the traditional principles ofpeacekeeping were called into question. The period 1988-98 marked the third distinct period in the evolution of UNpeacekeeping. Operations began to take on functions pertaining to peacebuilding and increasingly found themselvesdeployed to internal conflict situations. The perceived failings of UN peacekeeping in the likes of the formerYugoslavia, Somalia and Rwanda gave rise to a degree of disillusionment over the very promise of peacekeeping, andits use declined. However, a surge was witnessed in the final period identified by the book, 1999-2013, with a record100,000 uniformed peacekeepers being in the field in 2010. The early twenty-first century saw peacekeeping undergoa major re-evaluation in the form of the Brahimi Report (2000). Modern peacekeeping mandates tend to be broad andoften have civilian protection at their very core, a far cry from those earliest operations created during the UN’sinfancy.This volume will be a much welcome addition to any library on the United Nations or related subjects. It will be ofenormous use to scholars engaged in the study of peacekeeping, whether their perspectives are grounded in thedisciplines of international law, international relations or defence studies, amongst others. It is eminently accessiblewhile not neglecting to afford attention to some of the more difficult issues to have arisen in the context of UNpeacekeeping. It serves two key objectives for the interested scholar in simultaneously providing critical analysis ofsome of the major themes and controversies inherent in UN peacekeeping practices, while also constituting a majorsource of reference for factual details of every operation to have been deployed over a period of 65 years. Noreputable library should be without a copy.Dr Gary Wilson, Phd LLB (Hons.), FHEA is Senior Lecturer in Law at Liverpool John Moores University. Hespecialises in collective security, the use of force and issues of secession and self-determination.Note: This review gives the views of the author, and not the position of the LSE Review of Books blog, or of theLondon School of Economics. Copyright 2013 LSE Review of Books

Book review: the Oxford handbook of United Nations peacekeeping operations edited by Joachim A. Koops et al

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

LSE Research Online