This new report is a synthesis of the discussions held and papers presented at the International Conference on the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC). Debriefing and Lessons', which was organized jointly by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) of Singapore and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) in August 1994. The report aims to reflect the conclusions and observations of the conference participants, and to draw overall lessons and recommendations from these findings, in the hope that they could be of use to future undertakings of the United Nations. This is the first volume in a new series which will cover the proceedings of the annual debriefing conferences organized by IPS and UNITAR on issues related to peace-keeping. The next volume will focus on the role and functions of civilian police in United Nations peace-keeping operations.

The United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) was the fruit of many years of negotiations which had resulted in the Paris Agreements on Cambodia, and a sincere attempt to reach out to a country devastated by conflict. The present report synthesises the discussions and papers presented at the `International Conference on the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC): Debriefing and Lessons', organized jointly by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) of Singapore and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). This report reflects as faithfully as possible the analysis and observations of the conference participants, and draws overall lessons and recommendations from that exercise, in the hope that these will be of use in future undertakings of the United Nations. Many reforms have already been initiated at the United Nations Secretariat in the wake of UNTAC. The Department of Peace-Keeping Operations (DKPO) has been strengthened and the Field Operations Division (FOD) integrated into it; the number of staff dealing with political analysis and training has increased; and the involvement of Member States, through secondment and the provisions of national expertise, has become institutionalized.

The media generally tend to focus in particular on the failures of U.N. peacekeeping operations. In Walking the Tightrope, Jair Van Der Lijn draws a different conclusion. He argues once a peace agreement has been signed, the efforts of the U.N. peacekeeping operations do contribute to durable peace. By analyzing the U.N. peacekeeping operations in Cambodia, Mozambique, Rwanda, and El Salvador in a structured focused comparison, this book shows how U.N. operations do have a contribution to make.

Peace-Maintenance explores the controversial concept that has evolved from diplomatic peacekeeping and military peace-enforcement. Jarat Chopra, the architect of peace-maintenance, outlines the limitations of traditional peacekeeping principles reliant on the increasingly questionable consent of belligerents. He traces the evolution of the political, administrative, legal and judicial ingredients of international authority. He draws on his extensive experience of peace operations with the United Nations, using many examples to illustrate the context and evolution of peace-maintenance, including in-depth studies of Somalia and Western Sahara.

Ai Kihara-Hunt’s Holding UNPOL to Account: Individual Criminal Accountability of United Nations Police Personnel analyzes whether the mechanisms that address criminal accountability of United Nations police personnel serving in peace operations are effective, and if there is a problem, how it can be mitigated. The volume reviews the obligations of States and the UN to investigate and prosecute criminal acts committed by UN police, and examines the jurisdictional and immunity issues involved. It concludes that these do not constitute legal barriers to accountability, although immunity poses some problems in practice. The principal problem appears to be the lack of political will to bring prosecutions, as well as a lack of transparency, which makes it difficult accurately to determine the scale of the problem.

Ms Lehmann has provided a timely and challenging prescription for just how the goals of placing communication functions at the heart of the strategic management of the UN might be achieved - and a dramatic warning of the consequences of failing to do so.

What is the role of a soldier at the end of war, when either victory or defeat is inevitable? This book delves into that question, exploring how the military and soldiers on the ground have contributed to the transition to peace. With case studies from 1800 to the present day, Soldiers in Peace-making offers a historical overview of the part military men and women have played in the aftermath of war. From UN peacekeeping in Cambodia to military observers in former Yugoslavia, the post-Cold War US Army and more, the essays in this collection map the strategy, politics and practicalities involved in the transition from war to postwar. Analyzing the legitimacy of each 'peace' and the military's approach to them, the chapters explore how soldiers have engaged with politics and political leaders, interacted with civil populations, and called upon their own expertise to enable the peace-making process. In exploring the hybrid role of military men and women as diplomats, peacemakers, negotiators and fighters this book reveals the crucial part they have played as conflicts come to a close.

In the 20 years since the Paris accords of 1991 brought peace to Cambodia, the country has undergone what can only be described as astounding change. From apolity where the entire fabric of society had been rent asunder through years of war and genocide, contemporary Cambodia is fast becoming a vibrant stateand assuming a new position in the Asia-Pacific region. The contributions to this volume - many by prominent figures who were intimately connected with the process - describe the diverse strands of mediation and peace-building which went into the creation of the 1991 accords. The subsequent role of UNTAC and the 1993 general elections in the process of Cambodian revival and social rebuilding are also described. While not denying that obstacles and difficulties remain, the contributions outline the evolving economic, political, religious and human resource situations within Cambodia, while also examining the country's contemporary international relations. This book constitutes a particularly fitting testament to the 20 years of Cambodian reconstruction which have followed the 1991 peace accords.

This book proposes a new approach to studying the effectiveness of peace operations. It asks not whether peace operations work or why, but how: when a peace operation achieves its goals, what causal processes are at work? By discovering how peace operations work, this new approach offers five distinctive contributions. First, it studies peace operations through a local lens, examining their interactions with actors in host societies rather than their genesis in the politics and institutions of the international realm. In doing so, it highlights the centrality of local compliance and cooperation to a peace operation's effectiveness. Second, the book structures a framework for explaining how peace operations can shape the behaviour of local actors in order to obtain greater cooperation. That framework distinguishes three dimensions of a peace operation's power-coercion, inducement, and legitimacy—and illuminates their effects. The third contribution is to highlight the contribution of local legitimacy to a peace operation's effectiveness and identify the means by which an operation can be locally legitimized. Fourth, the new power-legitimacy framework is applied to study two peace operations in depth: the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), and the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI). Finally, the book concludes by examining the implications of this new approach for practice and identifying a set of policy reforms to help peace operations work better. The book argues that peace operations work by influencing the decisions and behaviour of diverse local actors in host societies. Peace operations work better—that is, achieve more of their objectives at lower cost—when they receive high quality local cooperation. It concludes that peace operations are more likely to attain such cooperation when they are perceived locally to be legitimate.

The Oxford Handbook on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations presents an innovative, authoritative, and accessible examination and critique of the United Nations peacekeeping operations. Since the late 1940s, but particularly since the end of the cold war, peacekeeping has been a central part of the core activities of the United Nations and a major process in global security governance and the management of international relations in general. The volume will present a chronological analysis, designed to provide a comprehensive perspective that highlights the evolution of UN peacekeeping and offers a detailed picture of how the decisions of UN bureaucrats and national governments on the set-up and design of particular UN missions were, and remain, influenced by the impact of preceding operations. The volume will bring together leading scholars and senior practitioners in order to provide overviews and analyses of all 65 peacekeeping operations that have been carried out by the United Nations since 1948. As with all Oxford Handbooks, the volume will be agenda-setting in importance, providing the authoritative point of reference for all those working throughout international relations and beyond.