Policy Workshop: An Introduction to UN Peace Operations
Salman Ahmed
WWS 591f

UN peace operations activity is at an all-time high.  There are over 130,000 military, police and civilian personnel presently authorized for deployment in over 20 operations around the globe.  The UN is now second only to the US in the deployment of military forces world-wide. What are these operations expected to achieve? Why have some succeeded in the past, whereas others have failed?  When does it make sense to deploy a peace operation (whether run by the UN or a regional organization), and how does one fashion an appropriate exit strategy for them? What is the doctrine that should guide their conduct, in the military, police and civilian realms?  How are forces generated? Why does it take so long to get a mission up and running? Are the right people being recruited and are they being trained and guided properly? How have reform efforts to date fared?

The course will explore all of these questions, in addition to many others, in pursuit of the product it will prepare for the Division for Policy, Evaluation and Training (DPET) in the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO).  DPET is presently in the process of overhauling the mandatory induction it does for civilian staff new to peace operations, as they depart to their various field assignments.  DPET has sought input on this induction from the students of this workshop, mindful that the graduate students at WWS are the very types of people for whom the induction is intended.  The course will accordingly review key case studies in post-Cold War UN peacekeeping, both the successes and the failures, as well as examine the record of the UN's reform of its doctrine, policies and operational capacities, in order to identify the core issues on which all new staff should be trained.

The students will travel, from August 31 to September 9, to the UN Logistics Base (UNLB) in Brindisi, Italy, where the induction is conducted, in order to assess it, first-hand.  There will be interaction with the client and its partners throughout the workshop.