Critical Thinking on UN Peacekeeping in Somalia and Lebanon

Response to the professor

I agree with you about the cause of the failure of the Somali mission. The United States should not have pulled out of the country after the causality increase. I think the best thing to do should have to change the tactics that they were using. The withdrawal of the forces left a vacuum which was taken up by militia groups ( Durch, 1996,30) The differences between the two missions was that the US gave full support to the Lebanese cause but gave up in Somali Leading to the deaths of thousands of people [2]. The withdrawal of the UN forces and it employees went against the grain of maintaining peace and order in a troubled country [1]. Do you think the UN should be restructured to be given more powers and a military?

Bibliography

[1] Clark, Jeffrey. "Debacle in Somalia." Foreign Affairs (1992): 109-123.

[2] Department of Public Information, United Nations, Somali-UNOSOM I, United Nations Operation in Somali I .last update: March 21, 1997, 3

Durch, William J. UN Peacekeeping, American Politics, and the Uncivil Wars of the 1990s. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997.

Response to Austin Fall

I agree that in both cases peacekeeping was necessary if the world wanted to avoid a civil war. However, I dont agree that the success of the UN lies with eyes of the beholder. It is easy to determine the success and failure of the UN. In the case of Somali, the UN and the US failed the Somali people [2]The US should have changed the tactics and request support from other nations instead of living the country to the war loads. Thousands of people have been killed because of the Americans withdrawal. A good example of UN success is the insistence that the Israelis leave the occupied areas and stop its bombardments as per the UN resolution 425 (1978) [3]. The cessation of fire led to the prevention the massacre that could have happened in Sabra and shatila (1). Do you think we should adopt a standard of measuring the UN success?

Bibliography

[1] "The Sabra & Shatila Massacre | IMEU." Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU). Accessed April 16, 2017. https://imeu.org/article/the-sabra-shatila-massacre.

[2] Department of Public Information, United Nations, Somali-UNOSOM I, United Nations Operation in Somali I .last update: March 21, 1997, 3

[3] UNIFIL; United Nations Interin Forces in Lebanon, 39th Establishment Day, March 20, 2017, accesed April 10,2017, https//unifil.unmissions.org/its-39th-establishment-day-unifil-reiterate-commitment-uphold-peace-south-lebanon

Response to James Fountain

It true that the actions of the UN on the two different occasions didn't have an effect on each other. I also agree that the UN did a commendable job during the 1st intervention by acting swiftly and bringing order to Lebanon. I disagree with the notion that the UN was slow to intervene when Israel invaded Lebanon [1]. The reason is that the situation was complicated and involved two nations. It, therefore, needed to be handled with care. However, I agree about the inefficiency of the UN to enforce its charters. The best that the UN could do was warn both side3s against violating the agreement. Should the UN be given powers to enforce international treaties?

Bibliography

[1]"After U.N. Accord, Israel Expands Push in Lebanon - The New York Times." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. Accessed April 16, 2017. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/13/world/middleeast/13mideast.html.

[2]"Chapter 6: Lebanon: 1982-1984 | RAND." RAND Corporation Provides Objective Research Services and Public Policy Analysis | RAND. Accessed April 16, 2017. http://www.rand.org/pubs/conf_proceedings/CF129/CF-129-chapter6.html.

[3] Gendzier, Irene L. Notes from the minefield: United States intervention in Lebanon and the Middle East, 1945-1958. Columbia University Press, 2006.