War and Armed Conflict Unit 4.5

Conflict Disagreements between individuals, groups, governments resort to violence to solve conflict instead of applying conflict resolution strategies of negotiation, mediation, arbitration, conciliation. International groups such as the UNITED NATIONS attempt to convince countries to use “diplomacy” (conflict resolution strategies between countries)

Causes of Conflict Conflict over Resources Money, land, natural resources: forests, water, mineral rights(gold) - one group owns another wants Conflict over Democratic Rights and Freedoms Religion, culture, race, ethnic minority, Waging War: high-tech weapons: smart bombs, drones, missiles; low-tech weapons, knives, guns, grenades, land mines, homemade bombs – many nations and hundreds of industries get “rich” by exporting arms to war-torn countries

International movements to disarm countries Remove land mines Remove chemical weapons Requires a strong international voice of groups to make change Resistance occurs from governments and groups that see their political and economic interests outweigh that of the common good of the world’s societies

Enforcing Peace – United Nations Peacekeeping forces 1956 – the United Nations created a peacekeeping body – United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) made up of soldiers from the member countries of the UN UNEF initial goal was to keep fighters in the Middle East at the time away from each other until a peace agreement was signed Original idea for the peacekeeping forces came from Canadian diplomat, Lester B. Pearson – he received the Nobel Peace Prize and later became Canada’s 14th Prime Minister from April 1963 to April 1968

Peacekeepers Lightly armed for self-defense Rely on persuasion, and non-violent conflict resolution strategies to reduce tensions and prevent fighting The effectiveness of the PEACEKEEPERS depend on cooperation of opposing sides Very dangerous – to date 100,000 peacekeepers have been killed in peacekeeping missions. Very expensive – to date – almost $7 Billion dollars have been spent by countries who share the costs of outfitting peacekeeping forces under an agreed upon formula

Peacekeeping failures Peacekeepers are forced to stop violence without the agreement of the sides that are fighting. Bosnia, Rwanda, Somalia, Kosovo, and Democratic Republic of Congo

Cost of War - what do you think? Should governments be spending billions of dollars of the budgets on military spending to “better the world” and resolve conflicts resulting in civil and international wars?

Page 186 Case Study (4.8) ROMEO DALLAIRE – Canadian commander of the UN MISSION in RWANDA in 1994