Understanding Peacekeeping, 3rd Edition. Paul D. Williams and Alex J. Bellamy. Medford, MA: Polity Press, 2021.

In the midst of ongoing armed conflicts in Yemen, Ethiopia, and myriad other locations, understanding potential tools for mitigating these crises is necessary. Paul Williams and Alex Bellamy’s third edition of Understanding Peacekeeping is timely.[1] In this volume, Williams and Bellamy continue to build out their original 2004 release by evaluating and providing in-depth discussions of the changes in the international landscape and the drivers of peace operations over time. This is a textbook of peace operations centered on those endeavors that incorporate military personnel, which provides students and scholars in-depth analysis. For academics and students interested in peace operations, this book is a necessary research edition that could be used as a primary text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses.

This is the third edition of the book, and the authors have added a number of new sections and discussions since the last edition. In the discussion of the historical developments of peace operations, the authors broaden out from their previous edition to include a discussion of peace operations through September 2019. The previous edition of the book covered peace operations through 2009 so this latest volume is a significant expansion of the analysis. Since 2009, many peace operations have added a new consideration: stabilization. As the authors explain, “stabilization refers to missions that are expected to be robust and are mandated to support the restoration of order (including the protection of civilians) and assist the local authorities.”[2]

In each section the authors use comparative analysis of peace operations to illustrate their points, providing practical application of their arguments to events.

The third section of the book discusses the purposes of peace operations. The authors offer an extensive discussion of stabilization as one of the six current purposes of peace operations, along with prevention, observation, assistance, enforcement, and administration. While some of the content in the section is comparable to previous editions, it has been rebranded with more clear distinctions between each purpose.

The fourth section of the book, which discusses contemporary challenges, includes sections on force generation, use of force, organized crime, and exit strategies. The topics include examples from recent peacekeeping operations. 

Overview

The authors state in their introduction that the purpose of the book is to provide a “sophisticated understanding of peacekeeping.”[3] To this end, the book is broken down into four sections that discuss introductory concepts and theories of peace operations, historical trends, the intended purposes of peace operations, and contemporary challenges. In each section the authors use comparative analysis of peace operations to illustrate their points, providing practical application of their arguments to events.

The first section of the book focuses on the concepts and theories of peace operations, with an introduction of the authors’ theoretic framing of the politics of peace operations as a function of the international order. For Williams and Bellamy, this division is defined as Westphalian and post-Westphalian approaches to peace operations, with the former focusing essentially on settling disputes between states while respecting sovereignty, and the latter expanding the purpose of peace operations to include the protection of civilians, even when that protection will challenge the authority and sovereignty of a state.[4] 

The inclusion of UN-sanctioned and non-UN missions adds depth to this analysis that is sometimes missing from the peacekeeping literature…

The authors are clear that there is no sharp divide between Westphalian and post-Westphalian approaches, and suggest that this is instead different political approaches by world actors toward peace operations. This terminology is comparable to what is likely more familiar to those who study peacekeeping, such as sovereign rights and responsibility to protect, and it is unclear why the authors chose to deviate from this language, particularly since both authors have used the more common language found in other publications.[5]  Williams and Bellamy then briefly introduce a number of other theoretic models for understanding peace operations, helping to frame their own approach within the broader international relations and peacekeeping literature.

In this first section the authors also provide an overview of the different actors that have engaged in peace operations, and divide these into three types—UN missions, UN-sanctioned missions, and non-UN missions. The inclusion of UN-sanctioned and non-UN missions adds depth to this analysis that is sometimes missing from the peacekeeping literature where authors may focus either on UN missions or non-UN missions, but not both. With this structure, the authors include 194 peace operations in their analysis, even as they exclude missions that did not include military personnel.[6] While a large data set does not ensure any kind of research accuracy, it does, however, provide depth to the analysis.

The authors delve into the interconnected stated purposes of peace operations and in doing so illustrate the complexity and difficulty of assisting in creating peace.

The second section discusses the historical trends of peace operations, dividing the events into Cold War missions, peace operations in the 1990s, and 21st century trends. This division may initially seem somewhat arbitrary in terms of time covered, but this primarily reflects that reassessment of peace operations made by the United Nations after the significant peacekeeping failures in Rwanda, Somalia, and the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s as well as the international order’s changing concerns on security issues such as terrorism.[7]

In addressing the contemporary challenges of peace operations, Williams and Bellamy delve into issues that have previously been relegated to the background.

The third and fourth sections of the book are perhaps where the authors make the biggest contribution to the literature on peacekeeping. In these two sections, they focus on the intended purposes as well as the challenges of peace operations in the 21st century. In bringing these two parts of the equation into specific focus, combined with the theoretic models and historical trend analysis, makes this book perhaps the most comprehensive analysis of peacekeeping available. The authors delve into the interconnected stated purposes of peace operations and in doing so illustrate the complexity and difficulty of assisting in creating peace. One such purpose, which is becoming a more common occurrence in the 21st century, is  stabilization missions, which the authors describe “in the context of peace operations as supporting the transfer of territorial control from illegitimate non-state armed groups to legitimate authorities, which need not always necessarily be central governments.”[8] These stabilization missions are particularly fraught with challenges, including being perceived as violating the United Nations norm of impartiality, and are thus increasingly controversial even while also becoming more common.[9] One only has to look at the concerns of peacekeeping efforts in Afghanistan, conducted by a variety of groups, including the UN, allied groups such as NATO, and individual states, with the policies and actions of the United States at the forefront, to understand the incredible difficulty of balancing global interests with state-level political goals.

In addressing the contemporary challenges of peace operations, Williams and Bellamy delve into issues that have previously been relegated to the background. Some of these challenges, like gender issues, including concerns about sexual violence and sexual exploitation both by peacekeepers and combatants, have long been a concern for academics but are only now being acknowledged and addressed by the states and organizations involved in peacekeeping.[10] Others, like peace operation mandates to address organized crime, which became a focus of the United Nations in the last few years, are likely to be a new consideration for many students.[11] 

Discussion

Understanding Peacekeeping is a comprehensive comparative analysis that is suitable as a textbook for graduate and advanced undergraduate courses. It is also a necessary edition to any research library for those interested in and invested in issues around global peacekeeping.

With that said, one potential concern is the authors’ contention that “careful scholarly studies have recognized UN peacekeeping operations as highly cost-effective means of promoting peace and security” and argue that “peace operations clearly help to mitigate armed conflict and reduce civilian victimization.”[12]

Williams and Bellamy do acknowledge some of the concerns about peacekeeping effectiveness, and cover in detail some of the notable individual failures of peacekeeping.

Williams and Bellamy list a variety of ways in which peace operations can have an objectively positive effect.[13] This is a particular bone of contention in the academic literature, however, primarily because of evaluations of what “success” means for peacekeeping. As Jessica Di Salvatore and Andrea Ruggeri point out, much of the debate comes from whether success is measured by “negative peace” or “positive peace” where negative peace means the end of an armed conflict and positive peace broadly means “building peaceful societies.”[14] Williams and Bellamy do acknowledge some of the concerns about peacekeeping effectiveness, and cover in detail some of the notable individual failures of peacekeeping. However, more critical analysis of subjective success, particularly localized evaluations of the effectiveness of peacekeepers, ancillary impacts of peacekeeping missions, and potential negative effectives of peacekeepers on various populations, should be more effectively addressed.

A second concern related to the text is an over-reliance on abbreviations. Most students and scholars of peace operations will be familiar with the sometimes confusing United Nations peace operations naming conventions, for example UNOSOM I, the United Nations Operation in Somalia I, or MINUCI, the United Nations Mission in Cote d’Ivoire. However, the authors rely heavily on abbreviations and/or acronyms of their own creation for a wide variety of topics. This reliance can disrupt the flow of their content, particularly when they rely on abbreviations or acronyms from the first introduction of a topic.

As an example, when introducing some of the unintended consequences of peace operations, the authors refer to SEA as a negative consequence of peacekeeping and refer the reader to Chapter 17 for more detail.[15] The authors here are referring to sexual exploitation and abuse as a negative consequence of peacekeeping that had captured media headlines. In order to understand what is being referred to, the reader must refer to the comprehensive list of abbreviations used in the book. This use of abbreviations and acronyms for such a wide variety of topics tends to slow reading and comprehension and, in the example given, also seems to minimize an issue of significant concern.

Conclusion

Even while taking the above concerns into account, Williams and Bellamy continue to produce one of the most effective, comprehensive analyses of peacekeeping available. They incorporate graphics, tables, and box inserts that provide detail and depth to the discussions. Expanding the number of cases under analysis incorporates and addresses the changing international political climate. As I write this review, Haiti struggles to find stability after the assassination of their president, concerns about the Taliban’s control and human rights abuses in Afghanistan are re-emerging, and a coup in Sudan appears to be underway. Each of these situations, among others, are potential crises that may result in new peace operations missions. This book is critical for creating a base of knowledge to understand how those peace operations may be structured and the challenges that they would face. Students of peacekeeping will appreciate this new edition. It offers timely and up to date analysis of contemporary trends in peace operation missions to provide an excellent backdrop for analysts looking for potential tools to solve the world’s ongoing conflicts, providing the background knowledge necessary to understand the current climate.

Christina Cliff holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Idaho, specializing in sub-state political violence. She is an Associate Professor of Political Science, Security Studies at Franklin Pierce University.

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Header Image: Mali Peacekeeping Infographic, 2015 (United Nations).

Notes:

[1] This is the first edition without former co-author Stuart Griffin.

[2] Williams and Bellamy, Understanding Peacekeeping, 107.

[3] Williams and Bellamy, Understanding Peacekeeping, 2.

[4] Williams and Bellamy, Understanding Peacekeeping, 11-15.

[5] See for example: Paul D. Williams and Alex J. Bellamy. "The responsibility to protect and the crisis in Darfur." Security Dialogue 36, no. 1 (2005): 27-47; Alex J. Bellamy and Paul D. Williams. "The new politics of protection? Côte d'Ivoire, Libya and the responsibility to protect." International Affairs 87, no. 4 (2011): 825-50.

[6] Williams and Bellamy, Understanding Peacekeeping, 31.

[7] Williams and Bellamy, Understanding Peacekeeping, 89, 96-97.

[8] Williams and Bellamy, Understanding Peacekeeping, 200.

[9] Williams and Bellamy, Understanding Peacekeeping, 218-19.

[10] Williams and Bellamy, Understanding Peacekeeping, 343-61.

[11] Williams and Bellamy, Understanding Peacekeeping, 383-99.

[12] Williams and Bellamy, Understanding Peacekeeping, 27.

[13] Williams and Bellamy, Understanding Peacekeeping, 26-27.

[14] Jessica Di Salvatore and Andrea Ruggeri, "Effectiveness of peacekeeping operations," in Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2017).

[15] Williams and Bellamy, Understanding Peacekeeping, 18.