Untapped power? the status of UN information operations

Abstract

In 1992–93, the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia mounted a highly visible information operation that was critical to its success and to the election in Cambodia. Although more than a decade has passed since UNTAC, the UN has only made sporadic progress in developing the capacity and the will to fully exploit information operations to help its peacekeeping operations fulfil their mandates. Information operations at the UN face difficulties with personnel, planning, hardware and bureaucratic resistance. The fundamental problem for information operations at the UN is that they remain ad hoc, with little institutionalized support, and without sufficient planning and resources directed from the highest levels.

Notes

In some areas, including Cyprus, UN spokespersons deliberately avoid entering the information fray between the two sides.

See Dan Lindley, ‘Collective Security Organizations and Internal Conflicts,’ in Michael E. Brown (ed.), The International Dimensions of Internal Conflict, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1996, pp.562–67.

Details on the effects of information operations are available in the author's book manuscript, Promoting Peace with Information: Transparency as a Tool of Security Regimes.

Interview with Fred Eckhard, Senior Liaison Officer, DPKO, New York, 19 Apr. 1996. See also Ingrid A. Lehmann, Peacekeeping and Public Information: Caught in the Crossfire, London: Frank Cass, 1999, p.33.

Interview with Ayman El-Amir, Chief, Radio Section, DPI, New York, 26 April 1996. See also Virginia Page Fortna, ‘United Nations Transition Assistance Group’, in William J. Durch (ed.), The Evolution of UN Peacekeeping: Case Studies and Comparative Analysis, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993, p.366; Lehmann (n.4 above), pp.37–38, 42.

Interviews with Lena Yacoumopoulou, Film/Video Archives, DPI, 23–24 Apr. 1996 and Ayman El-Amir (n.5 above); transcripts of UNTAG Information Service Radio Programmes, made available by Yacoumopoulou.

Fen Osler Hampson, Nurturing Peace: Why Peace Settlements Succeed or Fail, Washington DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1996, p.54; Lehmann (n.4 above), p.46.

Carney quoted by Lehmann, p.60.

Interview with Michael Doyle, Senior Fellow, International Peace Academy, New York, 19 Apr. 1996.

Lehmann, p.65. See also Trevor Findlay, Cambodia: The Legacy and Lessons of UNTAC, SIPRI Research Report No. 9, Oxford: Oxford University Press for SIPRI, 1995, p.152.

Interview with Kevin Kennedy, DPI, New York, 24 Apr. 1996.

Interview with Doyle (n.9 above).

Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations, UN Doc. A/55/305-S/2000/809 Aug. 2000.

Ibid., p.4.

Ibid., p.22.

Ibid., para.146, pp.25–26.

David Wimhurst, ‘Preparing a Plebiscite under Fire: The United Nations and Public Information in East Timor’, in Monroe E. Price and Mark Thompson (eds), Forging Peace: Intervention, Human Rights and the Management of Media Space, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2002, p.307.

Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations (n.13 above), p.40.

See Comprehensive Review of the Whole Question of Peacekeeping Operations in All Their Aspects: Programme Budget Implications of Draft Resolution, UN doc. A/C.4/55/L.23 8 Aug. and A/C.5/55/46/Add.1, p.13, para.5.12.

Implementation of the Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations, UN doc. A/56/478, 16 Oct. 2001, p.7.

United Nations, ‘Ethiopia and Eritrea – UNMEE – Background’, 2002, accessed at www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unmee/background.html; ‘Ethiopia and Eritrea – UNMEE – Facts and Figures’ 2003, accessed at www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unmee/facts; ‘Ethiopia and Eritrea – UNMEE – Mandate’, 2002, accessed at www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/unmee/mandate.html.

Progress Report of the Secretary-General on Ethiopia and Eritrea, UN doc. S/2003/665, 23 June 2003, p.7.

Progress Report of the Secretary-General on Ethiopia and Eritrea, UN doc. S/2002/245, 8 Mar. 2002, pp.1–2,7.

This section is based on: UNMEE, ‘Near-Verbatim Transcription of Press Briefing’, 6 Sept. 2002, accessed at www.waltainfo.com/Conflict/Articles/2002/September/article1.htm; UNMEE, ‘Near-Verbatim Transcription of Press Briefing’, 25 July 2003 for media briefing on 24 July 2003, accessed at www.waltainfo.com/Conflict/Interview/2003/July/article3.htm; UNMEE Public Information, ‘Edited Transcript of 2 November 2001 Press Briefings’, accessed at www.un.org/Depts/dpko/unmee/pc021101.htm; Progress Report of the Secretary-General on Ethiopia and Eritrea, UN doc. S/2002/977, 30 Aug. 2002, p.5; Report of the Secretary-General on Ethiopia and Eritrea, UN doc. S/2002/744, 10 July 2002; Hansjoerg Biener, ‘Radio for Peace, Democracy and Human Rights: Eritrea’, accessed at www.evrel.ewf.uni-erlangen.de/pesc/peaceradio-ERI.html; telephone interview with Chris Coleman, Team Leader for UNMEE, DPKO, 29 Jan. 2003; email correspondence with Hansjoerg Biener, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Germany, Jan 2003.

Email correspondence with a UN official, unattributable.

‘UNMIK: Television’, UNMIK – DPI, 2001, accessed at www.unmikonline.org/tv/tv.htm); interview with Eleanor Beardsley, former Press Officer, UNMIK, and Senior Editor, Focus Kosovo, Priština, Oct. 2003.

Julie Mertus and Mark Thompson, ‘The Learning Curve: Media Development in Kosovo’, in Price and Thompson (eds), (n.17 above), pp.261–4,270,272.

Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo UN doc., S/2001/926, 2 Oct. 2001, pp.10–11, and Mertus and Thompson (n.26 above), pp.264–6.

Email correspondence with Beardsley (n.26 above), Jan. 2003.

The sources for this section are: Ivo H. Daalder and Michael E. O'Hanlon: Winning Ugly: NATO's War to Save Kosovo (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 2000; Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo UN doc., S/2002/62, 15 Jan. 2002; Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, UN doc., S/2002/1126, 9 Oct. 2002; Larry Wentz, Lessons for Kosovo: The KFOR Experience, Washington, DC: Department of Defense Command and Control Research Program, 2002; Radio Netherlands Media Network Dossier, Peace Radio: Outside Africa, 25 Sept. 2002, accessed at www.rnw.nl/realradio/dossiers/html/peaceradiorest.html; Hansjoerg Biener, ‘Radio for Peace, Democracy and Human Rights: Yugoslavia (Kosovo)’, accessed at www.evrel.ewf.uni-erlangen.de/pesc/peaceradio-YU.html; ‘UNMIK: Radio’ (UNMIK – DPI), 2001, accessed at www.unmikonline.org/radio/radio.htm; ‘UNMIK: Publications’ (UNMIK – DPI), 2001, accessed at www.unmikonline.org/pub/pub.htm; ‘UNMIK: At a Glance’ (UNMIK – DPI), 2001, accessed at www.unmikonline.org/intro.htm; BBC News, ‘Country Profile: Yugoslavia’, 29 Jan 2003, accessed at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/1039269.stm; ‘Blue Sky – Fact Sheet’ and ‘Communique de Presse, 3 Aout 2000’, accessed at www.hirondelle.org.

Twelfth Report of the Secretary-General, UN doc., S/2002/1180, 18 Oct. 2002, pp.9–10.

Radio Netherlands Media Network Dossier: Peace Radio: Democratic Republic of Congo, 10 Dec. 2002, accessed at www.rnw.nl/realoradio/dossiers/html/congo-p.html.

Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice, ‘Peace and Justice Update’, San Diego, CA: University of San Diego, 8 Mar. 2002, Vol.3, No.6; telephone interview with David Wimhurst, 24 Oct. 2003.

Telephone interview with Dario Baroni, Desk Officer, Fondation Hirondelle, Geneva, 28 Jan. 2003. Other sources consulted for this section were: US Department of State, ‘Background Note: Democratic Republic of Congo’, accessed at www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2823.htm; BBC News, ‘Country Profile: Democratic Republic of Congo’, 18 dec. 2002, accessed at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/1076399.stm; United Nations, ‘Democratic Republic of Congo – MONUC – Background’, 2002, accessed at www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/monuc/background.html; United Nations, ‘Democratic Republic of Congo – MONUC – Facts and Figures’, 2002, accessed at www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/monuc/facts.html; United Nations, ‘Democratic Republic of Congo – MONUC – Mandate’, 2002, accessed at www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/monuc/mandate.html; Hansjoerg Biener, ‘Radio for Peace, Democracy and Human Rights: Kongo (Kinshasa)’, accessed at www.evrel.ewf.uni-erlangen.de/pesc/peaceradio-ZAI.html; Juakali Kambale, ‘Ondes Pacifiques’, Journal Decouverte, 3 Apr. 2002, accessed at www.afrik.com/journal/decourverte/dec-487-6.htm; Radio Okapi.net, ‘Programmation de Radio Okapi a l'heure de Kinshasa, Mis à jour le 19/12/2002’, accessed at www.monuc.org/radio/programmation.asp.

Telephone interview with Wimhurst (n.33 above).

Telephone interview, Susan Manuel, Chief of Section, Peace and Security Programmes, DPI, 24 Nov. 2003.

Telephone interview, Simon Davies, 19 Dec. 2003.

UN doc., ‘Guidance to Special Representatives of the Secretary-General: Public Information and Media Relations in United Nations Peace Operations’, 23 July 2003,

UN doc., ‘Handbook and UN Multidimensional Peacekeeping Operations’, Feb. 2004, ch.IV, pp.45–54.

United Nations, ‘Meeting of Information Chiefs’, report of a conference held 11–13 Dec. 2001, pp.21–3; telephone interview with Manuel (n.36 above).

Telephone interview, Simon Davies (n.37 above).

See also, Helen Darbishire, ‘Non-Governmental Perspectives: Media Freedom versus Information Intervention?’ in Price and Thompson (eds.) (n.17 above), pp.329–364.

Telephone interviews with Davies and Wimhurst (nn.33, 37 above).

Ibid., Davies.

Wimhurst, ‘East Timor’, in Price and Thompson (eds.), (n.17 above), p.307.

MONUC's budget is from the DPKO, fact sheet: ‘Democratic Republic of Congo – MONUC – Facts and Figures’, (accessed at www.un.org/Depts/dpko/missions/monuc/facts.html). The Radio Okapi figure might include start up costs. See Radio Netherlands (n.32 above); European Broadcasting Union, Radio Department, ‘‘Newsletter’, No.12, Des Radios Internationales’, 22 Apr. 2002, DR/10093, AS/AD-nll.

International Peace Academy and Center on International Cooperation, ‘Refashioning the Dialogue: Regional Perspectives on the Brahimi Report on UN Peace Operations’, New York: International Peace Academy, April 2001; interview with Frederick Schottler, Information Officer, Peace and Security Section, DPI, New York, 25 Apr. 1996.

UN doc., S/2000/809 (n.13 above), p.9.

Lindley (n.2 above).