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The Africa Working Group,
Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR),
George Mason University
Ever since the debacle of Somalia 1992 major Western countries have spectacularly withdrawn from UN peacekeeping operations in Africa thereby shifting the burden almost exclusively on to developing countries with limited resources. As of mid-2006 the top 10 troop contributors to UN peacekeeping operations are from Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Jordan, Nepal, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Uruguay and
South Africa, providing together more than 67 per cent of all UN military and police personnel (www.un.org). Ill-equipped, under-resourced and often poorly trained, Africa’s ‘poor man’s’ peacekeepers are thrust into ever more complex and dangerous tasks such as weapons control, refugee relief work, post-conflict reconstruction, and election certification, economic revitalization, to name but a few. These operational challenges, coupled with incompatible command structures and sometimes muddled UN Security Council mandates has affected morale and discipline as witnessed by the increasing number of sexual complaints and reports of misconducts by the ‘Blue Berets’ in countries such as DRC, Burundi, Liberia and more recently, Haiti. This highly-interactive one-day conference organized by the Africa Working Group of George Mason University will bring together experts, diplomats, academic practitioners, students and activists from the Washington DC Metropolitan Area to discuss the changing face of peacekeeping in Africa. The conference will critically explore the prospects and challenges of developmental peacekeeping which calls for the weaving together of peacekeeping and peacebuilding issues to ensure a continuum that fosters sustainable peace, justice and development . The ultimate goal will be to foster our understanding of this timely phenomenon as well as proffer recommendations aimed at addressing some of the key weakness in peacekeeping in Africa in particular and other global hotspots in general.
This event is open to the public. Due to limited
space, please rsvp to Erin Rose Feeley with your
contact details at [email protected]
Continental Breakfast and lunch will be provided