United Nations human and financial resources for peacekeeping in Africa

Abstract

The United Nations, as an international moral authority, will often be re- quested to intervene in Africa. The United Nations currently has six operations in the African continent (Western Sahara, Liberia, Angola, Rwanda, Somalia and Mozambique). Many African people feel that the United Nations should be in- volved in other parts of Africa, but United National human and financial resources are not infinite. In other words, the United Nations cannot be in every troubled spot of Africa or be able to mobilize the required Human and Financial resources to bring peace and security to an African continent beset by tribal, ethnic, politi- cal, economical and social problems. The United Nations should choose and select the operations that have a likelihood of success. How should these operations be chosen? The United Nations may assess potential and ongoing peacekeeping oper- ations through five necessary criteria for likelihood of success. These five criteria are discussed in this thesis. In addition, a model for assessment of these criteria is introduced. The six United Nations operations are assessed by this model, with a success ranking derived for each. This ranking may be used to select UN peacekeeping operations. The United Nations could then redirect its efforts if necessary. The premise of this thesis is to introduce a tool that may be used by the United Nations to assess its operations in Africa.