Monday, January 12, 2009
Does Force Composition Matter?
The preliminary findings of this policy brief therefore suggest that:
• Increased numbers of peacekeepers from fewer contributing countries
are more effective than fewer peacekeepers from a larger
number of contributing countries.
• The forces in these five cases that consisted of cross-regional
peacekeepers were more effective than those comprised of
peacekeepers from one region.
• The stability of a force seems to be a critical factor. The longer a
peacekeeping force is deployed, the more time it has to establish
itself as an actor in the conflict.
http://www.humansecuritygateway.info/documents/FORD_DoesForceCompositionMatter.pdf
• Increased numbers of peacekeepers from fewer contributing countries
are more effective than fewer peacekeepers from a larger
number of contributing countries.
• The forces in these five cases that consisted of cross-regional
peacekeepers were more effective than those comprised of
peacekeepers from one region.
• The stability of a force seems to be a critical factor. The longer a
peacekeeping force is deployed, the more time it has to establish
itself as an actor in the conflict.
http://www.humansecuritygateway.info/documents/FORD_DoesForceCompositionMatter.pdf
Counterinsurgency Field Manual: Afghanistan Edition
...
1-3. Although all development is critical in this impoverished country, roads are the single most important path to success in Afghanistan. In Ghazni province last summer, one of us spoke with an Afghan road builder whose shirt was covered in dried blood. He’d been shot by the Taliban a day earlier for working with the coalition, but he was back the next morning with his paving crew because he thought that finishing that road was the best way to bolster security in his village. Indeed, the U.S. general who was critical of U.S. counterinsurgency efforts in Afghanistan pointed at Afghanistan’s ring road from the window of his Black Hawk helicopter, and declared, “Where the road ends, the Taliban begins.”
...
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4587&page=1
1-3. Although all development is critical in this impoverished country, roads are the single most important path to success in Afghanistan. In Ghazni province last summer, one of us spoke with an Afghan road builder whose shirt was covered in dried blood. He’d been shot by the Taliban a day earlier for working with the coalition, but he was back the next morning with his paving crew because he thought that finishing that road was the best way to bolster security in his village. Indeed, the U.S. general who was critical of U.S. counterinsurgency efforts in Afghanistan pointed at Afghanistan’s ring road from the window of his Black Hawk helicopter, and declared, “Where the road ends, the Taliban begins.”
...
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4587&page=1
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Monday, December 29, 2008
Hard Power/Soft Power: Peacebuilding at the Pentagon
Discussion of the new Peacebuilding mandate of the US military:
http://www.aworldofpossibilities.com/details.cfm?id=325
http://www.aworldofpossibilities.com/details.cfm?id=325
Friday, November 7, 2008
Chaos and massacres overwhelm NE Congo
Congo
Murder, muddle and panic
Nov 6th 2008 | KINSHASA
From The Economist print edition
As chaos and massacres overwhelm north-eastern Congo, diplomats and peacekeepers are struggling to get a grip
AP
“THE situation is catastrophic,” says a Red Cross man. “There’s no other word.” Tens of thousands of terrified civilians are jamming the roads of Congo’s North Kivu province in a frantic southbound exodus in the hope of self-preservation (see map). General Laurent Nkunda’s mainly Tutsi rebels are poised to grab the eastern city of Goma after capturing most of the smaller towns in the area. Reports of massacres on the night of November 5th in Kiwanja, a small town north of Goma, have increased the panic. An officer in General Nkunda’s force said that his men had “neutralised” men in civilian clothes there who, he said, covertly belonged to the so-called Mai-Mai militias; they, along with the Congolese army and others, have been fighting the Tutsi rebels. A local clergyman said at least 180 civilians had been killed during the night.
http://www.economist.com/world/mideast-africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12573363
Murder, muddle and panic
Nov 6th 2008 | KINSHASA
From The Economist print edition
As chaos and massacres overwhelm north-eastern Congo, diplomats and peacekeepers are struggling to get a grip
AP
“THE situation is catastrophic,” says a Red Cross man. “There’s no other word.” Tens of thousands of terrified civilians are jamming the roads of Congo’s North Kivu province in a frantic southbound exodus in the hope of self-preservation (see map). General Laurent Nkunda’s mainly Tutsi rebels are poised to grab the eastern city of Goma after capturing most of the smaller towns in the area. Reports of massacres on the night of November 5th in Kiwanja, a small town north of Goma, have increased the panic. An officer in General Nkunda’s force said that his men had “neutralised” men in civilian clothes there who, he said, covertly belonged to the so-called Mai-Mai militias; they, along with the Congolese army and others, have been fighting the Tutsi rebels. A local clergyman said at least 180 civilians had been killed during the night.
http://www.economist.com/world/mideast-africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12573363
Thursday, November 6, 2008
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