Posts on Peace

Yesterday was the 7th annual International Day of Peace, and the UN Secretary-General, along with hundreds of peace lovers and cellphone users around the world, marked the occasion by sending the following text message:

"On 21 September, the International Day of Peace, I call on world leaders and peoples around the world to join forces against conflict, poverty and hunger, and for all human rights for all."

Almost 2000 texters worldwide typed out messages of peace, which were collected on this website and will be shared with world leaders when they meet for the General Assembly tomorrow.

Mobile technology is already being used to overwhelming effect in relief and humanitarian operations; while texting for peace may seem a more abstract venture, this may just represent the next frontier in harnessing the power of information sharing and electronic communications to help achieve real peace on the ground. Some of the potential of this innovative strategy can already be seen in Afghanistan, where the avid preparations for the International Day of Peace did not disappoint, as guns fell silent across the violent country yesterday. If even Taliban insurgents are taking these text messages to heart, I think we can be sure that others will, too.

Senator Biden's post now in the Delegates' Lounge will be the last installment of our Post on Peace series, dedicated to a discussion on conflict and its causes broadly defined. Over the last few months, we have hosted commentary by two other legislators, Congressman Donald Payne and Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey; academics Stephen Schlesinger, John Prendergast, and Susan Rice; UN officials like the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the former Head of the UNFPA, and two representatives from the UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia (link and link); a former U.S. Perm Rep to the UN; and, of course, Mark Goldberg's comprehensive Keeping the Peace series. It's time to take the banner down, but you can always find the posts in our archives. We hope you've enjoyed the series and will continue to visit UN Dispatch for commentary on conflict and all other matters related to multilateralism and diplomacy.

Lynn Pascoe, the new American UN Under Secretary General for Political Affairs (which is sort of like the UN's Secretary of State) visited Mogadishu over the weekend. He came back convinced that more troops were urgently needed in Somalia.

"It's a fact that more troops are needed to help stabilize Somalia which had been without a central government for more than 16 years," Pascoe told journalists in Nairobi. The UN is pushing for the implementation of a three-phased plan, targeting reconciliation, security reinforcement and the continuation of the humanitarian efforts. [Snip] Pascoe plans to brief the Security Council on his visit to the region upon his return to New York and recommend the possible deployment of a UN peacekeeping mission in Somalia.

If the UN deploys to Somalia, it would join Southern Sudan and Ethiopia/Eritrea as the third peacekeeping mission in the Horn of Africa. Indeed, the Horn is seemingly becoming a new loci for peacekeeping operations in Africa. Just to the west, prospective missions are also being considered in Chad, the Central African Republic, and of course, Darfur.

Today is the International Day of UN Peacekeepers. From the UN News Center:

Last year marked the fourth in a row when more than 100 men and women died in the service of UN peacekeeping, Mr. Ban noted. "Now, with our deployment at a record high, more soldiers, police and civilian staff face danger in places like Sudan, the Middle East and Haiti," he said, citing Friday's killing of Lieutenant-Colonel Ehab Nazih, a UN peacekeeper from Egypt working in Darfur, as but the latest example of this.

More.

The White House today announced long anticipated new steps to pressure the Sudanese government into accepting a peacekeeping force in Darfur. Known as "Plan B," the new measures include expanding existing American sanctions on Sudanese business interests and imposing targeted sanctions against one rebel leader and two Sudanese government officials (including one who is wanted by the International Criminal Court). President Bush also announced that he would seek additional sanctions against Sudan at the United Nations. This would be a positive development. The unilateral American sanctions are of only limited value--the United States already has an expansive sanctions against Sudan. At this point, the best way to leverage Sudanese cooperation on Darfur is though multilateral forums like the United Nations and International Criminal Court. In a Boston Globe op-ed that ran three weeks ago, John Prendergast of the Enough Project explains why this is so.

Earlier this week, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court announced that his office will open an investigation into suspected war crimes in the Central African Republic, where a civil war peaked in 2002 and 2003. The war was marked by terrible sexual violence, and according to the Prosecutor this is the first ICC investigation in which the number of rape victims exceeds the number of murders. With the new investigation in CAR, says The Economist, the International Criminal Court is hitting its stride: "This is the fourth formal investigation launched by the court since it was set up in The Hague five years ago. Many, including some of its original backers, have complained about the slowness of its procedures. But it has passed some notable milestones. It has issued international arrest warrants against its first two suspects in Sudan and five rebel leaders in Uganda. Its first trial--of Thomas Lubanga, a Congolese rebel leader--is due later this year. Many a highly placed thug, it is hoped, is beginning to sleep less easily at night."

Successive American administrations have had sometimes rocky, sometimes rosy relations with the UN, but one feature which all US governments have universally admired at the UN has been its peacekeeping missions. These undertakings have over the decades prevented the outbreak of conflict, disarmed combatants, overseen elections and trained police forces - all without involving US troops and saving Washington millions of dollars. Today they number eighteen and involve over 100,000 UN soldiers. But now they may be in trouble. The US owes almost $500 million in back-dues to support these operations because several years ago Congress insisted that our nation should pay only 25% of the overall costs of these endeavors though we could afford more. Without these US outlays, these vital enterprises may now be crippled or forced to end.

Throughout May and in coordination with the Price of Peace campaign, UN Dispatch will present "Posts on Peace," a month of insights on conflict and its causes, whether it be political instability, culture clash, poverty, or climate change. We will feature posts by thought leaders, contributors to other popular blogs, and our own in-house bloggers. The first Post on Peace, an interview with former U.S. Ambassador to the UN Andrew Young, is up in the Delegates' Lounge to the right. Please stop by regularly, use our new "Email" feature to send posts to your friends and colleagues, and sign up for our new weekly updates. And, over the course of the month, if a particular post strikes a chord with you or you have an insight on conflict in general,

and participate in the discussion.

Andrew Young, who also served as a Representative in the U.S. Congress, a top aide to Martin Luther King Jr., and the Mayor of Atlanta, was appointed the U.S. Ambassador to the UN by President Carter in 1977. We sat down with Ambassador Young recently to discuss his thoughts on the UN and how his early years formed his philosophy on conflict and its resolution.