Peacekeeping operations. How and under which criteria can we assess whether they are successful?

Essay from the year 2019 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Public International Law and Human Rights, grade: 8,4, Leiden University, language: English, abstract: Based on a case study analysis of the Mission des Nations Unies pour la stabilisation en Haiti (MINUSTAH), the essay answers the question of how and under which criteria one can assess whether peacekeeping operations are successful. The paper shows that while the criteria of short-term analyses are the most prominent ones in the literature, they are not universally applicable and that there is a need to establish common criteria for the assessment of peacekeeping missions that focus on the long-term consequences of such missions. Regarding the success of MINUSTAH, it is concluded that it was neither a (full) success for the UN nor for the Haitian population.

Since 1948 the UN has deployed more than seventy peacekeeping missions (UN Peacekeeping n.d.). Peacekeeping operations can be defined as operations, which were deployed with or without the compliance of belligerent parties, depending on international legislation and mandate to sustain and implement a peaceful environment impartially and without using combat arms, if not necessary.