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Future of Peace Operations Program

research areaThe Rule of Law in Post-Conflict Settings

 

The Future of Peace Operations program is conducting a series of related projects on key elements of international support for the rule of law in post-conflict settings.

Border Security and Export Controls
Fighting Corruption in Post-Conflict Settings
Enhancing United Nations Police Capacity
Criminal Accountability of UN Non-Military Personnel
UN Panels of Experts and Targeted Sanctions Implementation

Border Security and Export Controls

International missions want to hand back responsibility for local security to local government as quickly as possible, but weak and recovering states need something other than the international dole to pay for these and other critical governmental functions. The most easily revivable and collectible tax is on tangible imports and exports at points of entry and exit (airports, seaports, and border crossings). Effective border security also helps stem illicit flows of gems, drugs, and light weapons, and helps to fight human trafficking networks. Thus, to help accelerate the development of a legitimate local government, international support for public security in recovering failed states must extend to state borders, help the government collect export and import taxes, and promote the development of border security forces and a customs service. In Post-Conflict Borders and UN Peace Operations, FOPO examines training and assistance programs that aim to improve border and trade control efforts in recovering failed states, and in particular the potential for new technologies to facilitate the efforts of transitional international operations.

 

FULL REPORT: "Post-Conflict Borders and UN Peace Operations"

Fighting Corruption in Post-Conflict Settings

A new Future of Peace Operations program study by Alix J. Boucher, William J. Durch, Margaret Midyette, Sarah Rose and Jason Terry, examines corruption in war-torn states and summarizes best practices for fighting it. Mapping and Fighting Corruption in War-Torn States reviews and consolidates, from the English-language literature on the subject, what the world’s specialists in corruption have to say about how to recognize and fight it in post-conflict circumstances, especially where international peace operations are deployed. Its structured summary or "meta-analysis " of the literature is built around two charts: one that depicts patterns of corruption in post-conflict states and a second that maps and connects the most frequently mentioned steps for dealing with it. The latter closely resembles a comprehensive state-building strategy.

 

FULL REPORT: "Mapping and Fighting Corruption in War-Torn States"

Enhancing United Nations Police Capacity

Within peace operations, international capacity to create and maintain a secure post-conflict environment or to develop legitimate, sustainable local capacity to do so is remarkably thin and institutionally ad hoc. High-quality police and associated rule of law personnel for international missions remain in particularly short supply. This project addresses these shortfalls, analyzing the changing nature of UN police (UNPOL) in modern peace operations and laying out a series of proposals aimed at strengthening UN capacity to carry out post-conflict police operations. Specifically, the FOPO team has assessed the feasibility of a standing, rapidly deployable UN rule of law capacity (ROLCAP) and the prosepcts of a UN Police Reserve.

FULL REPORT: "Enhancing United Nations Capacity to Support Post-Conflict Policing and Rule of Law"

BACKGROUNDER: "African Civilian Police Capacity for International Peacekeeping Operations"

SPOTLIGHT ANALYSIS: "Post-Conflict Policing and Rule of Law: The Case for UN Reform"

 
Related Events:

A workshop on International Policing: Improving Professionalism and Responsiveness, to discuss UN policing needs and US agency contributions and coherence with presentations by author William Durch, UN Police Advisor Andrew Hughes, and US government representatives Angelic Young, Michele Greenstein, and Greg Ducot.

Criminal Accountability of UN Non-Military Personnel

The issue of transparency and accountability within peace operations has received heightened public attention following revelations of sexual exploitation by peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and elsewhere. The Future of Peace Operations program is examining these issues and options for countering peacekeepers' impunity. In particular, the program is looking at the feasibility of establishing collaborative justice mechanisms to hold non-military personnel accountable for crimes committed on mission, when the state of peacekeeper's nationality does not have extraterritorial jurisdiction or internationally accepted human rights standards. Research addresses existing mechanisms for curbing criminal behavior, gaps and weaknesses in those mechanisms, and the extent to which those gaps would be closed by recommendations made in the 2005 Zeid Report. In addition, FOPO is comparing that report to Françoise Hampson’s working paper on the accountability of international personnel serving within peace support operations recently commissioned by the Economic and Social Council’s Commission on Human Rights and evaluating whether any of the recommendations made by Hampson and Zeid are being implemented. On June 14, 2005, the program hosted a Discussion with H. R. H. Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid Al-Hussein, Permanent Representative of Jordan to the UN, on current reform efforts at the UN to address these issues.

 

NEW REPORT:

"Improving Criminal Accountability in United Nations Peace Operations", by William J. Durch, Katherine N. Andrews, and Madeline L. England, with Matthew C. Weed (The Henry L. Stimson Center, June 2009)


SPOTLIGHT ANALYSIS: "Ending Impunity for Peacekeepers"

SPOTLIGHT ANALYSIS: "Signs of Progress in Improving UN Peacekeeper Accountability"

 

Related Events

UN Panels of Experts

To track sanctions violations in countries like Liberia, the DRC, Somalia, and Sudan, the UN has appointed short-term fact-finding teams known as "Panels of Experts." These teams provide a detailed, unvarnished picture of the illegal trade between weapons, diamonds, timber and other commodities that sustains conflict. The Panels' reports include specific recommendations for stemming this trade. Although the Security Council has endorsed many of the Panels’ recommendations, progress appears slow in implementing them. The Future of Peace Operations program is currently compiling the Panels’ recommendations and tracking their adoption. It is also analyzing impediments to implementation of the Panels’ findings and recommending measures to make their use more effective by the United Nations.


NEW REPORT:

"Targeting Spoilers: The Role of United Nations Panels of Experts", by Alix J. Boucher and Victoria K. Holt (The Henry L. Stimson Center, January 2009).

 

ISSUE BRIEF: "UN Panels of Experts: They're about More than Just Monitoring Sanctions" by Alix J. Boucher (The Henry L. Stimson Center, August 2009).

ISSUE BRIEF: "Tracking Bad Guys, Small Arms, and Illicit Trade: The Role of the United Nations Panels of Experts" by Alix J. Boucher and Victoria K. Holt (The Henry L. Stimson Center, July 2007).

BACKGROUNDER: "United Nations Mechanisms for Combating Illegal Trade in Regions of Conflict," by Katherine Andrews and Tobias Berkman (The Henry L. Stimson Center, June 2005).


Related Events:


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