Pearson Peacekeeping Centre - The Pearson Papers

The Pearson Papers

The Pearson Papers are Canadian peacekeeping press publications compiled by the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre. They are:

• Pearson Paper 1: Public Information Campaigns in Peacekeeping: The UN Experience in Haiti by Ingrid Lehmann
  • In this, the first of The Pearson Papers, Ingrid Lehmann explores "the development of Public Information Campaigns, both civil and military, from 1994 to 1996. The main innovation of the United Nations Mission in Haiti (UNMIH) was the introduction of the Military Information Support Teams (MIST)." MIST operations over three different phases of the peacekeeping mission in Haiti are examined: the initial deployments to Haiti as part of Operation Uphold Democracy; UNMIH under United States leadership; and, UNMIH under Canadian leadership.

• Pearson Paper 2: The Level Killing Fields of Yugoslavia: An Observer Returns by James V. Arbuckle
  • In the second of The Pearson Papers, James Arbuckle provides a lucid and personal account of the post-conflict situation in the former Yugoslavia. The author comments on the implementation of the Dayton Peace Accords and analyzes the prospects for future peace in the region, through the prism of his considerable experience in military peacekeeping.

• Pearson Paper 3: African Peacekeepers: Partners or Proxies? by Eric G. Berman and Katie Sams
  • In this book, the third of The Pearson Papers, Eric G. Berman and Katie E. Sams examine current efforts to develop African peacekeeping and peace enforcement capabilities. They describe various Western and African capacity-building initiatives and attempts to resolve conflicts in Africa. Drawing on numerous interviews with policy makers and practitioners, they reveal the incongruities between Western “largesse” and African needs. Berman and Sams conclude that despite current Western and African efforts, the factors resulting in inaction four years ago in Rwanda still persist.

• Pearson Paper 4: Intelligence In Peacekeeping: The Cloak and the Blue Beret: The Limits of Intelligence-Gathering in UN Peacekeeping by Walter Dorn and Out of the Closet: Intelligence Support for Post-Modern Peacekeeping by David Charters
  • This Pearson Paper contains two distinct chapters by two separate authors both dealing with the topic of Intelligence in Peacekeeping. Dorn looks at the United Nations’ view of “intelligence,” its reluctance to utilize and that exact terminology. Dorn explores how intelligence is an essential part of UN peacekeeping. Charters’ central argument is that post-Cold War conflicts have changed dramatically the character of peacekeeping operations, and that the change will now require peacekeepers to apply the full range of intelligence capabilities in order to bring such conflicts under control.

• Pearson Paper 5: The Laws of War and The Rules of Peace: Why Traditional Legal Models Do Not Work by Thomas B. Baines
  • In this the fifth of The Pearson Papers, Thomas Baines presents some operational, moral and ethical challenges that arise in the context of non-traditional military operations. As well, he proposes some institutional formalisms to help limit the potential negative consequences of dealing with these challenges. His analysis and recommendations are framed for military policy makers and field commanders, rather than policy makers and executives of the other parties that may be involved in the types of missions discussed.

• Pearson Paper 6: Confronting Rwandan Genocide: The Military Options What Could and Should the International Community Have Done? by Douglas Anglin
  • In this the sixth of The Pearson Papers, this essay explores promising courses of action that, given the necessary political will, would have been militarily feasible and morally justifiable. It assesses realistically their prospects of success in checking the haemorrhage in Rwandan lives and identifies the circumstances and significance of the opportunities missed. Particular attention is paid to the time frame as, with each day’s delay, thousands of additional lives were lost. As the scale of the ethnic killing became evident, demands mounted that “something must be done”. Yet, little serious thought was paid to what that “something” realistically might be. Meaningful military intervention would have proved problematic. The operational constraints on intervening rapidly and effectively in the middle of Africa in a country with limited infrastructure could not be dismissed as insignificant — or insurmountable.

• Pearson Paper 7: The 1999 United Nations and 2000 Organizations of African Unity Formal Inquiries: A Retrospective Examination of Peacekeeping and the Rwandan Crisis of 1994 by Terry M. Mays
  • This the seventh Pearson Paper, takes a different approach in analyzing the peacekeeping related failures within Rwanda and the United Nations headquarters. In 1999, the United Nations initiated the Report of the Independent Inquiry into the Actions of the United Nations During the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda. The following year the Organization of African Unity (OAU) opted to conduct its own independent investigation and established the International Panel of Eminent Personalities to Investigate the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda and the Surrounding Events. This essay utilizes these independent investigations as the foundation for a review of the peacekeeping failure in Rwanda. Several factors for failure can be identified from the UN and OAU investigations and each is explored in this study. The essay also examines whether the 2,000-member UN peacekeeping operation on the ground in Rwanda could have halted the genocide if the political will existed to accomplish the task. Five options for the future are reviewed and a postscript includes a brief discussion on the relationship of state sovereignty and humanitarian intervention as seen through the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty.

• Pearson Paper 8: Lessons Learned on UNMIK Judiciary by Mark Baskin
  • This study was designed to review the experience of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) with judiciary capacity building. UNMIK is significant both because Kosovo is a linchpin of Balkan politics and diplomacy, and because it provides a laboratory for deriving lessons for future efforts at post-conflict governance and administration. The goal of the study was to enable policy makers to “learn the lessons of capacity building for a judiciary as a part of the mandate of a peace support cooperation if similar work in the future is to be more effective”. A direct result of this study, Pearson Paper 8, Lessons Learned on UNMIK Judiciary describes problems at each stage of judiciary building, how they were addressed, how they could have been addressed more effectively, and what changes would facilitate such improvements. After outlining the broader context in which the development of Kosovo’s judicial system takes place, this assessment will describe chronological developments in the judiciary. It then turns to broader themes and patterns in the establishment of the judiciary by focusing on the specific challenges that most characterized the development of the judiciary at each stage and to some underlying patterns in the development of Kosovo’s judiciary and concludes with some suggestions – both for the future of Kosovo’s judiciary and in other post-conflict administrations, as well.

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