Peacekeeping system in the spotlight

Rapidly changing trends in international peacekeeping are likely to pose a serious challenge to regional authorities intending to establish an emergency force for dealing with conflict in Southern Africa, recent research has noted.

In a paper entitled, "Towards a Common Southern African Peacekeeping System", South African-based political analyst, Cedric de Coning, argued that the fast pace of developments in the peacekeeping field over the last decade had "complicated" efforts by policy-makers and researchers to arrive at a common understanding of peacekeeping.

"As a result, our ability to accurately conceptualise the future direction peacekeeping is likely to take is probably limited to five years or less," he said.

Current financial constraints and limited peacekeeping experience were among the factors likely to delay the establishment of a peacekeeping force within the Southern African Development Community (SADC), de Coning pointed out.

African peacekeeping efforts in 2003 were not limited by political will or the lack of troops, but by the lack of funding.

At the operational level, an SADC peacekeeping system should have a sub-regional "standby arrangement", managed by a "small but professional permanent headquarters" responsible for mission planning, budgeting and current mission management, de Coning suggested. The standby force should have an integrated civilian, police and military structure.

The emergency force would also be expected to "integrate" with other "mission players", especially the relief community and civil society groups, to ensure a synchronised response to conflict situations.

One of the advantages of a common SADC peacekeeping force was that it could act as a vehicle for cooperation among defence ministries.

South Africa was expected to have a considerable impact on any future common SADC peacekeeping, and although such a system was likely to benefit from the country's resources and previous peacemaking initiatives, there was also a danger that it could become "subservient" to South Africa's national interests.

De Coning concluded that the development of such an emergency force could assist regional human security cooperation, but said it should include existing donor-driven civil society peacekeeping initiatives underway in the sub-region.

Full report: www.trainingforpeace.org