KAIPTC to launch book on Peace Operations
Accra, June 19, GNA - The Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) will launch the Annual Review of Global Peace Operations 2009, book on June 24.
A statement from the KAIPTC said the book was the most comprehensive source of data and analysis on peacekeeping in the pubic domain and a resource for journalists and analysts, covering all UN and non-UN peace operations including Congo, Darfur, Afghanistan and Kosovo and data on the growth of peacekeeping to record levels over last year.
The editors noted that “2008 was the worst year for peacekeeping over a decade. The largest and most visible peacekeeping operations faced serious military and political reversals. These endangered not only specific mission, but the entire global peacekeeping enterprise. No major peacekeeping provider was unaffected. The united Nations was tested in Congo and Sudan, NATO in Afghanistan, EU in Kosovo and the Africa Union in Somalia.”
It said central to peacekeeping's troubles during the year, was the blatant disregard for a critical lesson from the past: “that peacekeeping is not a substitute for an effective political process”.
"Neglect of this critical best practice pushed the international peacekeeping architecture including the UN, AU, EU and NATO to the brink, with dire consequences for the image of peacekeeping as an effective and flexible tool for international conflicts management, but most critically for civilians caught up in conflicts.”
GNA