Civilian peace-keepers: a future challenge

If peace-keeping is to remain one of the United Nations' most important instruments for securing world peace, it requires new and improved peace-keeping mechanisms in areas where the international community faces potential or existing conflicts.

This article discusses the possibility of a more frequent and conceptualized use of civilians to enhance the capacity of peace-keeping.The main objectives of such a project should be:

• to build a corps of international peace monitors adequately trained/educated and prepared for immediate dispatch to duty in the international/regional arena
• to augment the knowledge and proficiency of the region concerning the United Nations role in international, political and security orders
• to explore the potential for increased combined use of military officers, civilian police and civilian professionals in the international/regional arena to improve the civilian/military relations

The paper concludes that:

• the new political environment and the nature of existing and potential conflicts demands a more comprehensive and far-reaching approach
• conflicts need to be addressed at an early stage where the root causes and underlying differences require a new and more human approach
• preventive actions and peace-building must be considered as the global objectives
• the next generation of peace-keeping must be more progressive and civilian in nature in order to keep up with these new requirements
• civilian society must be mobilized in a more coherent way

Finally the paper suggests that these civilian resources should be utilized not only in the military operations but even more extensively by creating a new and innovative instrument suitable for the new environment.