Standing UN Force: Its Time May be Coming

The concept of a standing UN peacekeeping force has been around since the world body’s creation. But due to member concerns about their sovereignty, it has never materialized.

Now, two developments at the UN signal that the peacekeeping department, which has conducted successful operations in recent years but is widely perceived to be overstretched, is ready to take on a more permanent mission. The department has quietly begun assembling a standing police capacity and military reserve force.

And two years ago, the world body adopted “the responsibility to protect” principle, which provides a legal basis for humanitarian intervention by the UN in situations where a member state is unwilling or unable to stop genocide, ethnic cleansing and human rights violations.

The current system for launching peace operations has sometimes been compared to a volunteer fire department. Former Secretary-General Kofi Annan said “even that comparison is too generous. At the UN, we must first find fire engines and the funds to run them.”

The obvious remedy is a UN individually recruited peace force. Its most recent manifestation is a proposal for a United Nations Emergency Peace Service (UNEPS), envisioned as a permanent force comprising 15–18,000 individuals including military, police, and civilian and judicial experts. It could respond to humanitarian and natural disasters as well as traditional peace operations. UNEPS would be a small “first in, first out” contingent.

In the U.S. Congress, a bill supporting UNEPS has been introduced in the House of Representatives and is now under study by the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

WFM–Canada Council member Peter Langille presented the UNEPS idea at a November international meeting on genocide prevention at McGill University in Montreal. Langille says it’s likely only modest steps will be taken by the end of 2008 when a new U.S. administration is installed. “It is important to be active now, preparing the idea and the constituency before the ripe moment arrives.”

WFMC webpage on United Nations Emergency Peace Service: here