When Peacekeepers Come Home
When Peacekeepers Come Home by Jonathan D. Caverley and Jesse Dillon Savage, New York Times
peacekeeping forces. They can do immense good by separating combatants and pacifying civilian areas. They are, on occasion, guilty of sexual violence and financial corruption in the societies they have been sent to help. And increasingly, the troops are drawn from less wealthy countries, rather than the rich nations that finance the operations.
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has focused on improving the peacekeepers’ performance in the challenging combat environments of “host” states like Mali and South Sudan. President Obama has committed the United States to supporting roughly 40,000 additional soldiers and police from 50 donor countries.
But a major task remains. The training, combat experience and relatively high salaries the peacekeepers from developing nations get can equip them to affect politics at home when they return. The United Nations needs to study and clarify what influence — for ill or otherwise — returning troops exert. The question applies in many countries and has gone unanswered for too long.
The current environment – many conflicts at once – has created a seller’s market for peacekeepers, and many less developed countries have responded by letting the United Nations in effect rent their soldiers. Compared with previous decades, the average peacekeeper now comes from a country that is not just poorer but also less democratic and institutionally underdeveloped…