Old Peacekeeping Warhorses - Are they right?

[FSTO]

As an Officer in the RCN, I've always considered classical Peacekeeping a role for the Army so I've been agnostic to its usefulness to Canada. If I was honest, it was a way for the GoC to cut real defence capabilities and say "Hey! Look at all the good we are doing in the world."

Anyway, when Bob Rae and Llyod Axworthy both lament the end of Canada's "traditional" role, then something is going right!

Even as Canada spends more than ever on our military, this one proud tradition is dying. That’s a mistake

Security involves more than deterrence, territorial defence and combat readiness.

www.thestar.com

Canada’s Peacekeeping Legacy Should not be Snuffed Out - Policy Magazine

Those operations represent Canada's peacekeeping commitments in Kosovo, Cyprus, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Egypt, where Canadian

www.policymagazine.ca

 

[OldSolduer]

It served its purpose in the Cold War. After the breakup of my old favorite “enemy” the USSR the old traditional peacekeeping was not effective.
The two sides have to be willing to abide by the agreement but after 1990 or so that went to shit in the FRY. No one was willing to abide by anything

 

[RangerRay]

It served its purpose in the Cold War. After the breakup of my old favorite “enemy” the USSR the old traditional peacekeeping was not effective.
The two sides have to be willing to abide by the agreement but after 1990 or so that went to shit in the FRY. No one was willing to abide by anything

I don’t think many people, even in the foreign policy sausage factory, realize how it was the superpowers, not the UN, that enforced the peace in those Cold War conflicts.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

It served its purpose in the Cold War. After the breakup of my old favorite “enemy” the USSR the old traditional peacekeeping was not effective.
The two sides have to be willing to abide by the agreement but after 1990 or so that went to shit in the FRY. No one was willing to abide by anything

If the UN is going to close the office every weekday from 16:00 until 09:00 the next day or 16:00 Friday until 09:00 Monday, they are useless and so are their missions.
Trying to get hold of them, while you're being mortared or having a rocket attack and getting no response because they are at the beach for the weekend, just shows how useless they are. That and risk adverse 12 page ROE's taped to your rifle butt.

 

[Retired AF Guy]

It served its purpose in the Cold War. After the breakup of my old favorite “enemy” the USSR the old traditional peacekeeping was not effective.
The two sides have to be willing to abide by the agreement but after 1990 or so that went to shit in the FRY. No one was willing to abide by anything

And I seem to remember seeing somewhere that UNIFIL is shutting down this fall.

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Canada was effective at peacekeeping, because it had a well educated army and junior NCO's could make intelligent decisions that had implication on the geopolitical level. The reason the army was good at this, was because we trained hard to defeat the Soviets and even at the peak of peacekeeping the majority of the army's effort was to defeat the Soviets.