Page 274 - The ISA Handbook in Contemporary Sociology

9781412934633-Chap-16 1/10/09 9:23 AM Page 245

MILITARY PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS 245

borders, except for NATO exercises or first- control, and resolve conflicts between states.
generation UN peacekeeping missions. By The establishment of stable alliances, the
contrast, since 1990, Danish soldiers have maintenance of sufficient strength to deter
been deployed out of area repeatedly, includ- aggression, and the evolution of military forces
ing operations in the Gulf War and in the oriented toward controlling and reducing
former Yugoslavia (Sorensen, 2000). During conflict – constabulary forces – were part of
this period, the number of Danish soldiers the repertoire developed for these purposes.
assigned to UN missions has tripled to 1,500, During the twentieth century, the major
and a new Danish International Brigade of alliances were themselves in competition for
4,500 soldiers was established to support UN influence and this competition both limited
actions. Current Danish deployments for the set of nations that could credibly partici-
peace operations are also less dependent on pate in constabulary, or peacekeeping, opera-
host country consent than was previously the tions, and the level of force that could be
case. used in these operations. With the end of the
Cold War in Europe, these constraints were
lifted. The range of nations that could or
were expected to cooperate in peacekeeping
DISCUSSION operations, and who now have to negotiate
their appropriate roles in this cooperation,
The nature of conflict has changed through balancing their national interests against
human history. There were wars, or at least those of supra-national bodies, increased.
battles, long before there were nations. As we have moved beyond first-generation
Familial groups, clans, and tribes warred peacekeeping, the level of force used in
against each other with stones, clubs, agricul- peace operations has also increased. Peace
tural implements, darts, arrows, and spears. enforcement increasingly resembles war. In
As states evolved, so too did the technol- its most frequent incarnations, it pits trained
ogy of warfare, with wheeled vehicles, such military forces of modern nations, using
as chariots, horses, and armor becoming modern military technologies that do not
instruments of conflict. The introduction of include the most lethal weapons in their arse-
gunpowder displaced the mounted warrior nals, in conflicts with irregular forces repre-
(or knight) from the central place on the senting tribal, ethnic, or religious interests,
battlefield. and using whatever weaponry they can
While some early sociologists had expected acquire. Such asymmetric conflict is evolv-
warfare to disappear, it did not. Through to ing as the dominant form of the twenty-first
World War II in the middle of the twentieth century. However, it would be a brave person
century, social groups sought to develop who predicted the end of major inter-state
increasingly lethal military technologies, war as developed and less developed nations
and were willing to use them in war. The watch with concern the competition for
mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century resources such as oil and water, and look to
was a period of total war in this regard, the military, as before, as a prudent means of
accompanied by the development of a pro- being able to prevail over rivals in any con-
fession of arms, which acted as the instru- text. As before, peace operations will have to
ment of organized legitimate violence on compete with war fighting in the budgetary,
behalf of the state. political, and doctrinal tensions over priori-
With the advent of weapons of mass ties that bedevil any military – no matter how
destruction, both military forces and the strong and well resourced.
states they represented became less willing to Even assuming the future dominance of
wage total war. The international community asymmetric conflict, one must consider the
increasingly sought strategies to contain, question of how effective the different kinds