Citation

Burkle FM, Goniewicz K, Khorram-Manesh A. Prehosp. Disaster Med. 2022; 37(2): 147-149.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Cambridge University Press)

DOI

10.1017/S1049023X22000425

PMID

35322776

Abstract

United Nations (UN) Peacekeeping is the largest and most visible representation of the UN. It represents a collective investment in global peace, security, and stability. Peacekeepers protect civilians, actively prevent conflict, reduce violence, strengthen security, and empower national authorities to assume these responsibilities. Peacekeepers are not an enforcement tool but are highly regarded as an effective instrument for preventing resumption of civil war.1 Over 90,000 personnel from 125 countries contribute troops, police, and civilian personnel. Whereas the United States (US) is the largest financial contributor to UN peace keeping programs, they rank number 82 out of over 120, with 31 peacekeepers (0.00000009 per capita) assigned to the UN. Russia ranks 64th with 72 deployed peacekeepers (0.00000049 per capita), whereas Ukraine ranks 44th with 307 peacekeepers (0.00000743 per capita).2 Peacekeeping training is robust both individually and collectively. In 2007, the UN developed the Integrated Training Service (ITS) as the responsible center for peacekeeping training that focuses on skills of non-violent conflict management to prevent or defuse potentially violent situations during their missions.

Bratersky, in 2018, is the first to write about the emergence of both China and Russia in developing alternate views and policies of peacekeeping and the implementation of them in practice.Reference Bratersky3 He writes that in the US and many European countries, the "goal of peacekeeping and conflict resolution is to protect individual rights and freedoms and to accomplish a democratic transition by replacing authoritarian regimes with liberal-democratic alternatives." For both Russia and China, "as well as many other emerging powers," their goal of conflict resolution and peacekeeping is restricted "to preserve and strengthen the local state structures so they can support law and order on their territory and stabilize the situation in the country and the region," a philosophy that has allowed many autocratic "rising powers" the right to continue to rule.Reference Bratersky3 With the gradual emergence of autocratic regimes and erosion of liberal democratic institutions, the world experienced a fall from a peak of 45 democratic countries in 2010 to 37 in 2019,Reference Da Silva4 bringing with it increasing influence and the opportunity for re-interpretation of many crucial prior agreements that guided peacekeepers in the past.Reference Borshchevskaya5

No operational conditions changed for peacekeepers until a Russian-led alliance with deployed peacekeepers were sent by the UN to Kazakhstan in January 2022. The main tasks of the Russian-led peacekeeping activities and views proved to be divergent on security, human rights, and approach to international affairs as compared to Western counterparts. Bratersky's study emphasizes Russian peacekeepers historically do not act as neutral arbiters...

Language: en

Keywords

global health care; hybrid war; international humanitarian law; peacekeeping