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Rethinking US Foreign Policy in Haiti: An Engaged Ally Approach

Haiti is in a state of chaos. It is ravaged and controlled by vicious gangs caught in a turf war, that terrorize, abuse, and murder at whim. Ultimately, Haiti, on the brink of state failure, will not recover until its internal security crisis and lack of good, legitimate governance are remediated. The United States should pursue a multifaceted "engaged ally" approach to address the underlying security and socio-economic issues to lead to long-term, positive change in Haiti. This approach acknowledges the unique capacity of the United States and its allies to bring about change in Haiti while still prioritizing a Haitian-led solution.

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Singularly Complicated Missions: Peru’s Role in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations

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South American Participation in UN Peacekeeping Operations: Some Considerations

Peace operations are pragmatic responses by the international community to a situation that threatens or undermines international peace and security. Although the charter of the United Nations does not make reference to peace operations, they are covered by chapters VI, VII, and VIII of that treaty. The organization also uses, as a theoretical basis for the treatment of the theme, mainly, the documents An Agenda for Peace and its Peace and its Supplement, which were presented by the then Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali Boutros Boutros-Ghali in 1992 and 1995, respectively. Since 1947, more than since 1947, more than a million military, police, and civilians have served in the 67 peacekeeping missions peacekeeping missions. South American countries, especially Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, have South American countries, especially Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, have had a significant presence in these operations. This paper presents a descriptive account of the participation of South American countries in UN peacekeeping in United Nations peacekeeping operations and the legal provisions that govern their participation. In conclusion, it presents some considerations on the experience accumulated by the countries of the region, leading the reasoning to the importance of joint participation in these operations.
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Solidarity or Interest? What Makes States Want to Integrate Peacekeeping Operations? A Reflection on the Brazilian Case

The clamor for the defense of universal peace is quite old, however, perhaps its greatest expression has been consolidated with the institutionalization of peacekeeping operations (PKO) led by the UN. During the Cold War period, such instruments were little used; however, post-1988, there was a substantial increase in instituted PKOs. This paper presents a reflection on the possible reasons that lead countries to wish to join peace operations. It presents arguments that, more than solidarity, the real interests of states are in recognition by the international community and financing for their regular forces. It seeks to address in detail the Brazilian case, making clear what was the option of Brazilian foreign policy to increase its participation in these operations.
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Peacebuilding Operations and MINUSTAH: Chile’s Challenge of National Strategic Planning and Civilian Management in Haiti

The types of violent conflicts occurring more frequently today encompass solutions from different areas, making participation in peacebuilding from a broad range of backgrounds and specializations essential to its success. In order to reinforce the internal structure of fragile or destroyed states, it is necessary to achieve a stronger integration and coordination not only among the States but also among the international organizations. Peacekeeping must become Peacebuilding to accomplish this end. Integral security has long been a basic concept for all the participating countries. International experience demonstrates that States who cooperate in a specific country for humanitarian reasons and under UN mandate should afterwards complement the peace operations carried out by military forces with actions designed to settle that country's basic needs. As a concept, peace operations is broader, representing much more than sending troops. Along with the mission of enforcing peace and security, it also has a wider and more integral multidisciplinary character, throwing down a gauntlet to both civilian and military people to act jointly and in coordination in various multiple and complex tasks. This is necessary so that the new operations achieve their final goal of securing peace and socio economic development. In this article the case of Chile's evolution is presented inside the peace operations under the UN mandate. The future participation of civilians as a whole, altogether with military and police, is presented as another topic of the Foreign Policy under the framework of the Chilean International Cooperation Agenda for Haiti. Also, the Parliament's involvement in the generation of national strategic planning capabilities for peacebuilding is highlighted.
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Soldiers and Police: Co-responsibility and Joint Military-Police Missions in Peacekeeping Operations, Post-Conflict, and Public Security

This article seeks to analyze the frameworks and forms of cooperation between military and police forces in a contemporary world characterized by a growing militarization of the field of public security. The correlation between military and police has not only occurred in peace-building missions under the baton of multilateral organizations such as the UN and NATO, but also in the fight against organized crime, illegal trafficking, insurgency and terrorism that have intermingled, forcing governments to provide coordinated interagency responses, which has led to a blurring of the boundary between plain defense and pure citizen security. This proposal analyzes these two variants of police-military cooperation and coordination. Despite differences in ethos, culture, missions and firepower, the combined actions of both bodies have been essential to reestablish, first, the rule of law and institutional reconstruction and, second, to confront new threats to national security. However, little is known about combined military-police actions in Latin America against terrorism and drug trafficking. This project seeks to delve in detail into the latter aspect.
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Multinational Doctrine for the Participation of Latin American Armed Forces in Peacekeeping Operations

Up to now there has been no multinational or joint doctrine in Latin America for the participation of its armed forces in United Nations peacekeeping operations. However, most of the countries are actively participating in peacekeeping operations, as part of multinational contingents, such as the MINUSTAH. As the result of this situation, there has arisen a need for developing a common doctrine for the employment of military and police forces and civil contingents in this type of operation. This article presents a brief description of the three existing doctrinal models: UN, NATO and USA, with a critical analysis of the challenges that arise in generating a unique model adapted to Latin American realities.
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Uruguayan Armed Forces in Peacekeeping Missions and its Importance in a Country in Political Transition

This paper analyzes Uruguay's involvement in peacekeeping missions and how they are linked to the political transition that the country is going through. In this paper, we will show how important this type of mission, in its various aspects, is for Uruguay, while, at the same time, we will also show the difficulties that the country is having in connection with the political management of national defense, due to the lack of conceptual definitions and clear rules regarding the limits and responsibilities of such political management, which provides the framework for the task and missions of military institutions.
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Essay – The Haitian Peacekeeping Mission (MINUSTAH): Analysis of Chile’s Participation

On March 1, 2004, Chilean president Ricardo Lagos informed the nation of the decision to send troops to Haiti as part of a multinational peace mission (MINUSTAH), under the mandate of the United Nations. This decision made Chile the first country in Latin America to join the United States, Canada and France in a stabilization force in the Caribbean after the fall of Haitian president Jean Bertrand Aristide and it is Chile's the largest deployment in its long history of support for peace missions. In Chile, this initiative generated intense political debate in international analysis and defense circles concerning the suitability of sending this deployment on a mission such as MINUSTAH. It is the purpose of this document to discuss the conditions that led Chile to take part in this mission and its context and to offer a documented assessment of an issue that is still new within the country and of the participation of Chilean forces in missions under Chapter VII.
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Lessons of Peacekeeping Capacity Building: What We have Learned from the Case of Haiti

This chapter reviews the key lessons from the various research papers. In general, it points out that the research supported the hypotheses on which the study is based. The papers thus supported the importance of prestige, international obligations, hemispheric solidarity, and a residual support for the U.S. as motivations. But it also emphasized that the Latin Americans put more weight on the UN Charter than does the U.S. It also reinforced the importance of domestic political issues and considerations. While the research also supported the notion that political will was a necessary condition for participation in a PKO it did not validate its sufficiency. Rather, the lack of capability in terms of resources was shown to be even more important in some cases than political will. Finally, the research showed that there are a significant number of actions that can be taken by the nations of the hemisphere that will increase their individual and collective capacity to conduct PKO and other integrated operations.
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  • William J. Perry Center
    for Hemispheric Defense Studies

    National Defense University
    Abraham Lincoln Hall
    260 5th Avenue, Building 64
    Washington, DC  20319-5066
  • William J. Perry Center
    for Hemispheric Defense Studies

    National Defense University
    Abraham Lincoln Hall
    260 5th Avenue, Building 64
    Washington, DC  20319-5066