Semester-long Blog Topic

The blog topic we have chosen is the role of foreign peacekeepers in unstable countries such as Bosnia, Sudan, the DRC, and many others. The act of outside peacekeeping in civil disputes is a controversial issue in itself. Many African countries, for example, fear foreign intervention as a form of neo-imperialism. There is also a fine line between a foreign militant peacekeeping presence and an outright occupation of a country. Some, on the other hand, criticize the notion of foreign peacekeeping for not being involved enough. The United Nations, for instance, has stationed its largest peacekeeping presence in the DRC, a force numbering 17,000 troops, and many say such a number is still not substantial.

 Along with such questions as whether or not foreign peacekeeping is used as a remedy or a tactical maneuver, policy makers and foreign leaders must decide whether or not such involvement is feasible, which launches the power of international organizations such as the United Nations, the African Union, and the European Union into question as well. Peacekeeping forces and the extenuating circumstances influencing them are issues found at the core of international policy and theory, and thus seem to be a topic that can shed light on many facets of global politics.