Reaction to “UN Peacekeeping” -Videos from the United Nations, Al-Jazeera English, and UPI

One major component to the United Nations is peacekeeping. The first UN peacekeeping took place in Israel, in 1948, and that is certainly not the only one. Currently, UN peacekeepers are engaged in 15 nations around the world (Current UN peacekeeping operations). In this current fiscal year, only $7.83 billion is being spent on the peacekeeping program, which is 0.5% of global military spending. That being said, the peacekeeping program has a hard time of always keeping the peace. As well, for peacekeepers to be present, there must be “consent of the parties” and “impartiality”. However, in many of the situations that peacekeepers are involved in, that does not happen, as in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, peacekeepers helped rescue Tutsis so that they could be protected from Hutus.  Peacekeepers are not only involved in preventions of genocide, but in any situation where peace and security are at risk. Almost all of the time, when troops can be fielded, they do admirable work, to the point that they won the 1988 Nobel Peace Prize. However, the troops are at the mercy of member nations, and if they choose not to help, these troops cannot work. 81% of peacekeeping monetary funding (some nations fund by other means) come from ten nations, all of which are wealthy nations. However, there is a perception that the peacekeepers do nothing and are powerless (see video) . 

There have also been scandals that have plagued the UN peacekeeping mission, especially since with many of its problems, there is no enforcement (see video below).  (The "enforcement" problem is universal within the UN, as some nations contribute nothing when they are obliged to do so)

However, almost everyone acknowledges that UN peacekeepers assist when needed and “keep the peace”, even if there are inequalities between nations, nations that refuse to contribute, and scandals that have dogged it.  In order for the good such as in the video below to be accomplished more often, there needs to be more pressure on nations to contribute and for soldiers to work hard to keep the peace, instead of taking illegal actions.

 As you can see, peacekeepers participate in quelling  both political and humanitarian conflicts