Financial Times
Letters to the Editor
Use and abuse of term ‘peacekeeping’
Published: August 21 2008
Letters to the Editor
Use and abuse of term ‘peacekeeping’
Published: August 21 2008
Sir, I was relieved to read your editorial “A bully's deserts” (August 19), where you finally took notice of the misuse of the term "peacekeeping" by observers when covering the recent clashes between the Russian, Georgian and ethnic Ossetian troops.
Georgia's parliament officially objected to the presence of the Russian forces in a parliamentary vote in 2006. Consent of all parties is at the heart and soul of peacekeeping, a creative technique the United Nations developed initially to monitor ceasefires. Although peacekeeping has evolved over the years to mean implementing more complex peace agreements where consent is not always obtainable, to classify them as “peacekeeping” is suitable as long as the mandate is blessed by an international organisation such as the UN or is accompanied by an overwhelming international consensus. Considering that neither Georgian consent nor international support is given for the troops currently under the Russian command in South Ossetia, to continue to refer to them as such is a misuse and even an abuse of the term “peacekeeping”.
Ayca Ariyoruk,
Senior Associate, Global Policy Programmes,
United Nations Association of the USA,
New York, NY, US
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Georgia's parliament officially objected to the presence of the Russian forces in a parliamentary vote in 2006. Consent of all parties is at the heart and soul of peacekeeping, a creative technique the United Nations developed initially to monitor ceasefires. Although peacekeeping has evolved over the years to mean implementing more complex peace agreements where consent is not always obtainable, to classify them as “peacekeeping” is suitable as long as the mandate is blessed by an international organisation such as the UN or is accompanied by an overwhelming international consensus. Considering that neither Georgian consent nor international support is given for the troops currently under the Russian command in South Ossetia, to continue to refer to them as such is a misuse and even an abuse of the term “peacekeeping”.
Ayca Ariyoruk,
Senior Associate, Global Policy Programmes,
United Nations Association of the USA,
New York, NY, US
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
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