2. Literature Review
2.2. What is Effectiveness?
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tend to have fewer cases of sexual assault. In the effort to create more equality between the genders it should not be forgotten that gender is not the only thing that makes or breaks peacekeeping.119
2.2. What is Effectiveness?
A reoccurring argument for increased female representation in peacekeeping is that they apparently make peacekeeping operations more efficient, but what does efficient mean?
Obviously the main goal for peace operations is to end conflicts and reestablish long-lasting peace, but efficiency will be different form mission to mission, since individual missions all have different mandates and objectives to fulfill. This section of the Literature Review will therefore give a short summary of some of the most important criteria that make a peace operation more efficient and hence, more successful.
According to the UN, the following three factors are especially important for a successful peacekeeping mission. They have to:
• Be guided by the principles of consent, impartiality, and the non-use of force except in self-defense and defense of the mandate;
• Be perceived as legitimate and credible, particularly in the eyes of the local population;
• Promote national and local ownership of the peace process in the host country.120
119 Simic, “Does the Presence of Women Really Matter?,” International Peacekeeping, 196f; Jennings, “Women’s participation in UN peacekeeping operations,”; Karim and Beardsley, “Explaining sexual exploitation and abuse in peacekeeping missions,” Journal of Peace Research, 112ff; and Katherine Remenyi, “Does the Inclusion of Women in Peace Building Processes Make a Difference?,” E-International Relations, July 07, 2016,
http://www.e-ir.info/2016/07/07/does-the-inclusion-of-women-in-peace-building-processes-make-a-difference/
(accessed November 18, 2016).
120 United Nations Peacekeeping, “Success in Peacekeeping,” 2017, http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/
operations/success.shtml (accessed April 23, 2017).
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Other criteria include but are not limited to: commitment by the Security Council, host country and troop supplying countries, as well as clear formulated mandates. While the principles within the first factor used to be considered as the “three cardinal rules of peacekeeping,”121 especially within the scope of interstate conflicts, nowadays it is reasoned that the nature of conflict has changed towards intrastate conflicts and sometimes it is inevitable to break these rules. Consent from the host country is important because it shows a willingness to work together with peacekeepers exists. This willingness is said to improve the success rate of a peace operation tremendously. Concerning impartiality, it is argued that peacekeepers must take action should one of the parties involved in the conflict commit human rights violations. Thus, it is somewhat difficult to use this rule as measurement for success. The rule that force should only be used for self-defense faces similar restrictions, because (once again) the changing nature of conflicts might make the use of force necessary.122 In order for it to be effective “adequate resources and command, a strong and clear mandate and robust rules of engagement”123 need to be present.
Only the rule of consent seems to be able to give a good measure of whether a mission is a success or failure.
Another criteria vital to the success of a mission is the commitment of the Security Council, the five permanent members (P5) need to be able to cooperate or the focus will shift away from the actual issues and towards disagreements between the P5.124 Most recently, the case of the Syrian Civil War comes to mind. Disharmony among the P5 usually leads to “delayed, weak, ambiguous, or unrealistic mandates, and/or inadequate means for peacekeeping missions.”125
121 Sara Richey, “Is United Nations Peacekeeping a Practical Policy Instrument?: Factors that Influence the Success of Peacekeeping Operations.” Senior Honors Thesis, Indiana University Bloomington, May 2011, 6.
122 Richey, “Is United Nations Peacekeeping a Practical Policy Instrument?” 6ff.
123 Michael Matheson, Council Unbound: The Growth of UN Decision Making on Conflict and Postconflict Issues after the Cold War (Washington D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2006), 143.
124 Richey, “Is United Nations Peacekeeping a Practical Policy Instrument?” 11.
125 Andrzej Sitkowski, UN Peacekeeping: Myth and Reality (Westport, Conn.: Praeger Security International, 2006), 23.
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Therefore, unity among the P5 creates more successful missions. Cooperation between the P5 is especially important for mission mandates, because here their mission’s targets are defined.
Whether these targets are achieved or not usually determines how successful a mission was. In many cases the mandate either suffers from being formulated too vaguely, from setting goals that are impossible to attain or from constant adding of new goals.126 Creating a flawless mandate is utopian because according to Jett, “SC [Security Council] mandates, by their very nature, will continue to embody political compromises reflecting competing interests of member states.”127
Also very important to the success of peace operations are adequately trained troops, since many are coming from third-world countries their skill level tends to not be on par with troops from more developed countries. Cases of misconduct by peacekeepers put even more strain on the success of the mission, since it is the national government of the individual troops, not the UN that holds authority over them. But the personnel in the field also has a way of contributing to a successful mission by giving feedback on which mission objectives are working and which objectives need adjustment. Thus, making it possible to include the actual situation in the conflict region into mandate adjustments.128
These are obviously not all factors that can make or break a peacekeeping mission, but in order to stay on track of this thesis, the discussion of effectiveness in peacekeeping operations will end here. Female peacekeepers are obviously restricted by the mandate and the level of cooperation given by the Security Council, but they can ensure that they fulfill the mandate that is assigned to them to the best of their abilities, given that the mandate itself is effective. It is also possible for them to provide feedback on what works and what does not, as well as what has changed within the mission. With regards to some peacekeepers misbehaving we would return to
126 Richey, “Is United Nations Peacekeeping a Practical Policy Instrument?” 11ff.
127 Dennis Jett, Why Peacekeeping Fails (New York: St. Marin’s Press, 1999), 42.
128 Richey, “Is United Nations Peacekeeping a Practical Policy Instrument?” 19ff.
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the debate from the earlier debate about whether female peacekeepers are able and willing to influence the behavior of their male colleagues.
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