The U.S. in International Peacekeeping

Event Description

In August 2012 the United States ranked about 58th among countries supplying personnel to UN peacekeeping, one panelist said. This panel on 20 September 2012 looked at the successes and challenges of peacekeeping missions. It brought together three Americans who served in them. It was one of a series of peacekeeping alumni events. The series grew out of the Partnership for Effective Peacekeeping, a project of Refugees International, the Better World Campaign and Citizens for Global Solutions. The event also launched a network of U.S. peacekeeping alumni.

The panel discussed the partnership’s report, U.S. Engagement in International Peacekeeping: From Aspiration to Implementation. Lynn Holland described building police services in Haiti, Kosovo and Liberia. Her lessons were to tailor each mission to the country and to deploy police, courts and corrections together. She also urged recruiting more women. Other panelists argued that the United States contributes best through training, logistics, intelligence and specialist units, not large combat forces. They said regional forces are doing more of the work, and that peacekeeping costs far less than war.

Speakers

• Bob Enholm (moderator), Citizens for Global Solutions
• Lynn Holland, the first U.S. female peacekeeper, who served in Haiti, Liberia, Bosnia and Kosovo; background in policing and corrections
• Deborah Owens, former UN peacekeeping operations officer in Somalia, Rwanda and Bosnia
• William Stuebner, former special adviser to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

Titles are as of the event date.

Policy Focus

U.S. engagement in United Nations peacekeeping. Panelists discussed what the United States can offer: training, transport, intelligence, police advisers and paying its UN dues. They also discussed what it is unlikely to offer, and why taking part serves both American interests and American values.

See also: the 2011 launch of the report at the National Press Club.

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