International Peace Institute Occasional Paper Series

Illuminates the complex of factors that have contributed to the ongoing civil war in Sudan from the days following independence to the present.

Ending a two-decade-long armed insurgency, the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) Peace Accord was signed in December 1997 by the government of Bangladesh and the PCJSS, the political representative of the Hill people. However, because of ambiguities within the accord and the failure to implement many of its crucial elements, the situation in the CHT today is far from peaceful. Amena Mohsin considers the context, processes, and politics of peacebuilding in the CHT. Shedding light on the political and diplomatic tradeoffs involved in negotiating and implementing the peace accord, Mohsin suggests interventions at the local, national, and international levels aimed at moving toward resolution of the conflict.

The UN intervention in East Timor amply illustrates the type of complex operation that the United Nations increasingly is being asked to undertake. Michael Smith analyzes the successes and failures of the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), which was designed to work in partnership with the East Timorese in guiding the country to independence following the 1999 vote to secede from Indonesia. Continuing the compelling narrative begun by Ian Martin in Self-Determination in East Timor, Smith gives a lucid first-hand account of a United Nations mission in the unfamiliar role of interim government—a mission dealing with critical requirements for good governance, sustainable development, and effective military and police forces. Evaluating the lessons learned from the experience, he highlights the urgent need for reforms within the UN. The absence of those reforms, he believes, will lead to more failed states, more refugees, more poverty, and more dead peacekeepers.

Despite the deployment of NATO forces in Kosovo and the UN's direct involvement in governing the province, such terrors as murder, disappearances, bombings, and arson have become routine occurrences. William O'Neill analyzes the nature of the violence that continues to plague Kosovo's residents and assesses efforts to guarantee public security. O'Neill considers how the particular evolution of the Kosovo Liberation Army has had enduring negative consequences for the rule of law, how weak United Nations and NATO policies have contributed to this trend, and how the situation might be reversed. The result is a unique window into a controversial peacekeeping mission, presented from a practitioner's point of view.

A unique inside account of events in East Timor from the lead-up to the 1999 elections to the reluctant acceptance of international intervention to check the violence that wracked the country following the overwhelming vote for independence from Indonesia.

When the Dayton peace agreement was signed in 1995, there were expectations among the signatories, the Bosnian population, and the international community alike that the pact would not only end conflict among Bosnia's three armies, but also establish a political and social foundation for more robust peace. Recognizing that the latter goal—incorporating political reform and democratization, consolidating a multiethnic state, and economic reconstruction and development—remains significantly unmet, Cousens and Cater explore the reasons for the only limited success. Was the agreement fundamentally flawed, or is the disappointing progress more attributable to weaknesses in implementation? Does the fault lie outside the country, or with the Bosnians themselves? Considering these and other questions, the authors examine the choices made, as well as the constraints faced, by those seeking a lasting peace in Bosnia.

Using El Salvador as an example of the UN's recent multidimensional peacekeeping operations, Johnstone explores the delicate balance between the potentially conflicting goals of peace and justice.

Doyle explores the record of the UN's successes and failures in Cambodia as it attempted to create a neutral political environment that would lead ultimately to democratic elections.

A reliable record and evaluation of the drafting and implementation of the UN Gulf War cease fire resolution.

Makinda addresses both the internal sources of the Somali tragedy and the external factors that served sometimes to exacerbate and sometimes to alleviate it.

This tightly argued monograph provides a detailed account of the collapse of the communist regime in Afghanistan and considers steps that can be taken to consolidate post-communist rule.

Staley examines various regional maritime challenges confronting the UN, describes several organizational models from which planners might extract important lessons, and recommends specific steps toward the establishment of a UN Maritime Agency.

While studies of the UN typically focus on its internal procedures, resources, and problems, this path-breaking inquiry probes the UN's external circumstances—the diverse ways in which the rapidly changing international scene is likely both to provide it with opportunities and to impose constraints.