Conflict Scenarios, Defence Policy and Participation in Peace Operations: The Chilean Viewpoint

Abstract

This essay addresses the most relevant milestones of Chile's contribution to international peace operations (PKOs) by exploring its different phases. Its aim is to analyse the interaction between defence policy and foreign policy in the framework of a complex and interdependent international system. This is followed by a description of national regulations for the participation of military personnel in PKOs. Finally, the text analyses the effects of participation in PKOs on Chilean Marine Corps personnel through the results of a perception survey taken in 2009; further it develops potential scenarios for future missions.

Notes

Felipe Keyer, ‘Chile and Its Commitment to Peace Operations’, at: www.cfc.forces.gc.ca/papers/csc/csc35/exnh/keyer.htm

Carl Marowski, ‘International Humanitarian Law and It's [sic] Relation with the [sic] United Nations' Peacekeeping Operations’, Chilean Army Memorial, No.465, 2000, p.108.

Ronald Stuart Kain, ‘The Chaco Dispute and the Peace System’, Political Science Quarterly, Vol.50, No.3, 1935, at: www.latinamericanstudies.org/paraguay/chaco-peace.pdf

See: www.emdn.cl/paginas/operaciones%20internacionales/opaz1.htm

Chile, Ministry of Defence, National Defence White Paper of 2010, Santiago de Chile, 2010, p.136.

UN Secretary-General, An Agenda for Peace, New York: United Nations, 1992.

See: www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/7-98/F798_5.htm

Philippe Le Billon states that these critical resources often associated with past resource wars have ‘mostly included water and petroleum, but also diamonds, timbers or fisheries’: ‘Economic and Resource Causes of Conflicts’, in Jacob Bercovtich, Victor Kremenyuk and I. William Zartman (eds), The Sage Handbook of Conflict Resolution, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2009, p. 213.

See UN Secretary-General (n.6 above); UN Security Council, ‘Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations’, New York, 2000; UN, ‘A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility’, Report of the High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, New York, 2004.

Ignacio Fuente, ‘Peace Operations for the XXI Century: A Concept in Evolution’, at: www.ugr.es/~ceas/Misiones%20de%20paz/Operaciones%20de%20paz%20para%20el%20siglo%20XXI.pdf

See ‘Deepening Crisis in Darfur?’, at: www.reliefweb.int/library/documents/2006/ohchr-sdn-09aug.pdf

See ‘Rwanda/UN: Acknowledging Failure’, Africa Focus Bulletin, 31 Mar. 2004.

See Human Security Report 2005, Part I, p.17, at: www.hsrgroup.org/human-security-reports/human-security-report.aspx

Rodrigo Yáñez, ‘UN PKOs: Current Status, Global Perspectives and National Involvement’, Instituto Libertad, Vol.18, No.169, 2007, pp.1–26, at: www.institutolibertad.cl/ie_169_OPAZ.pdf

See, e.g., Mary Kaldor, New and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era, Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999; Ken Booth and Nicholas J. Wheeler, The Security Dilemma: Fear, Cooperation and Trust in World Politics, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.

Laura Neack, ‘UN Peacekeeping: In the Interest of Community or Self?’, Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 32, No.2, 1995, p.185.

See UN Peace Missions, at: www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0862135.html#axzz0wCxBqdFU

See Paul F. Diehl, ‘Institutional Alternatives to Traditional UN Peacekeeping: An Assessment of Regional and Multinational Options’, Armed Forces and Society, Vol.19, No.2, 1993, pp.209–30.

Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye, Power and Interdependence: Global Politics in Transition, Buenos Aires: Grupo de Editores Latinoamericanos, 1988.

Ibid., p.24.

Barry Buzan, Øle Wæver and Jaap de Wilde, Security, a New Framework for Analysis, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1998, p.3.

Marcelo Péndola, ‘Chile and the Peacekeeping Operations: From Individual Participation to Haiti’, Revista Fuerzas Armadas y Sociedad, Vol.19, No.1, 2005, p.74; Diego Gonnet Ibarra and Diego Hernández Nilson, ‘Uruguayan Participation in UN Peace Operations: An Underestimated International Insertion Tool’, Cuadernos CLAEH, Vol.4, 2008, at: http://socialsciences.scielo.org/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0797-60622008000100003&lng=en&nrm=iso

Marina Malamud Feinsilber, ‘Latin America in Peacekeeping Operations: A Sociopolitical Overview’, in Giuseppe Caforio (ed.), Advances in Military Sociology: Essays in Honor of Charles C. Moskos, Bingley: Emerald Group, 2009, p.140.

Elsa Llenderrozas, ‘Argentina, Brazil and Chile in the Reconstruction of Haiti: Interests and Motivations of a Joint Participation’, paper presented at Meeting of the Latin American Studies Association, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 15–18 Mar. 2006, p.3.

Chilean National Defence White Paper, 2010, at: www.defensa.cl/contenidos/libro-de-la-defensa-nacional-de-chile-2010), p.137.

Chile, National Defence Ministry, Under Secretary of War, Supreme Decree (of War) No. 68, National Policy for the Participation of the State of Chile in Peace Operations, Santiago de Chile, 1999, at: www.defensa.cl/paginas/public/ministerio/politica.htm

Chile, National Defence Ministry, Under Secretary of War, Supreme Decree No. 2200/114, Santiago de Chile, 2002.

See: www.un.int/chile/misionesdepazenglish

Cindy Rivas, ‘Participation of Chile in Peacekeeping Operations: Is it Time to Move Towards a System of Peace Consolidation?’, MA thesis, Center for Hemispheric Defence and Security, Inter-American Defense College, Washington, DC, 2008, p.52.

See: www.defensa.cl/

Chilean National Defence White Paper (see n.25 above), p. 134.

Chile, National Defence Ministry, Under Secretary of War (see n.26 above).

Ibid.

Enzo Di Nocera and Ricardo Benavente, ‘Constructing Capacities for Latin America and the Caribbean: Peacekeeping Operations and the Case of Haiti’, Security and Defense Studies Review, Vol.5, No.1, 2005, p.66.

Chile, National Defence Ministry, Under Secretary of War (see n.26 above), Art.6.1.

Ibid., Arts 6.6,6.7.

Ibid., Arts 7.1,7.4.

Ibid., Arts 8.1,8.2.

Rivas (see n.29 above), p.67.

Chile, National Defence Ministry, Under Secretary of War (see n.27 above), Arts 8.3,8.5.

National Defence White Papers, 1997, 2002 and 2010, Ministry of Defence, Santiago de Chile.

Law No.19,067 and new 2008 Law of Peace Operations No.20,297, at: www.bcn.cl/histley/lfs/hdl-20297/HL20297.pdf

See Péndola (n.22 above); Gonnet and Hernández (n.22 above).