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The military forces of the intervening nations As noted above, the standard assumption in
play a major role in this legitimation process. UN first-generation peacekeeping missions
In this conceptualization, in comparison to had been that military personnel from the
first-generation peacekeeping, strategic neutral middle powers would be the best
peacekeeping in Dobbie’s formulation may peacekeepers. Moskos’s (1976) research on
have the consent of the conflicting parties, the United Nations Force in Cyprus (UNFI-
although the level of consent may be lower CYP), which included a military contingent
than that found in first-generation operations, from the United Kingdom, challenged this
and in Dandeker and Gow’s formulation, assumption. Moskos showed that military
may abandon the first-generation norm of professionalism contributed strongly to the
consent in favor of broader legitimacy. ability of soldiers to adapt to the norms of
The political objective that characterizes peacekeeping. The finding was subsequently
first-generation missions, such as a treaty, is replicated with American combat troops
absent, although agreement on a solution to (Segal and Meeker, 1985).
the conflict rests with the conflicting parties. Nonetheless, the superpowers were gener-
The mission is likely to be more coercive ally excluded and other major powers were
than first-generation operations, with the minimally represented in first-generation
strategic initiative being taken by the inter- missions. In the early 1980s, when a pro-
vening nations, rather than the parties to that posed UN force in support of the Camp
conflict even though the whole point is for David Accords between Egypt and Israel,
the parties themselves to settle their dispute which was to have no major power military
under the strategic ‘prodding’of the interven- presence, failed to gain UN sponsorship, an
ing military and political forces. The need for alternative proposal was put forward to use
the use of force is likely to be greater. These American troops to guarantee the peace in
missions will be complex, with a number of lieu of the moral suasion of the UN. That
actors, and the pressures on the force com- presence, while accepted, was a matter of
mander – both military and political – are some concern (Segal and Segal, 1993: 56).
likely to be great. In the long run, the successful participation
If the robustness of the mission progresses of the United States, Great Britain, and
to peace enforcement, not only does the initia- France in that mission contributed to a
tive reside with the intervening parties, but so change in norms.
too does the definition of the solution to the con- In the post-Cold War period, peacekeeping
flict. Thus, in peace enforcement, not only is the participation became an option for US policy,
norm of consent not necessarily operational but and Russia became a cooperative Security
neither is the first-generation norm of impartial- Council member with regard to the authoriza-
ity, particularly as it has been equated to neutral- tion of peacekeeping operations (Kurashina
ity in first-generation missions (Donald, 2003). and Segal, 2007). International expectations
As Donald (2003: 435) notes, ‘it is impossible regarding the peacekeeping role of the
to use force and be always perceived to be UN expanded in the late 1980s, reaching a
impartial’. The peace enforcers explicitly peak with the Gulf War, in which the
become parties to the conflict. Security Council made a series of decisions
to carry out sanctions against Iraq after the
invasion of Kuwait. The United States and
major European powers participated in mili-
CHANGES IN PEACEKEEPING tary operations in the Gulf, reflecting a
PARTICIPATION change in the nature of peace missions and in
a first wave of changes in the nature of the
One of the enduring questions in international participants in these missions. The major
peacekeeping has been who should do it. nations also dismissed attempts by other