Defence Forces Review 2008
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Óglaigh na hÉireann Defence Forces Review 2008 ISSN 1649-7066 Published for the Military Authorities by the Public Relations Section at the Chief of Staff’s Branch, and printed at the Defence Forces Printing Press, Parkgate Street, Dublin 8 © Copyright in accordance with Section 56 of the Copyright Act, 1963, Section 7 of the University of Limerick Act, 1989 and Section 6 of the Dublin University Act, 1989. Preface As Director of Defence Forces Public Relations it is my great pleasure to publish the Defence Forces Review for 2008 on this the 50th Anniversary of Ireland’s first deployment to an International Peacekeeping Mission. On the 28th June 1958 the first Irish Peacekeepers led by Lt Col Justin McCarthy took up duty on the Lebanese/Syrian Border and since then not a single day has passed without an Irish soldier manning his or her post in numerous peacekeeping missions throughout the World. This is a unique record of which the Defence Forces are extremely proud and this issue of the Review is designed to reflect that pride and achievement while at the same time inviting comprehensive critical analysis with a view to learning what lessons we can from that entire experience. The Editor has assembled a unique group of contributors and I am personally grateful to all of them for the time and energy which they have willingly given in order to produce their essays which will certainly prove informative and challenging for the reader. I am also very grateful to Gerry White, Eugene Power, Donal Vaughan and Amanda Crowley for their valuable contributions to the editing process. The purpose of the Defence Forces Review is to provide a forum whereby contributors can raise current issues, provoke thought, and generate discussion across the wider Defence Community. I am quite happy that this issue of the Review will achieve all of these goals and I look forward to receiving many volumes of constructive comment as a consequence. Again, many thanks to all our contributors without whose commitment and generosity the production and publication of this Journal would not be possible. Billy Harrington Lieutenant Colonel Director of Defence Forces Public Relations The fact that an article appears in this journal does not indicate official approval of the views expressed by the author. Editor’s Note On 28 June 1958 Irish soldiers took up international peacekeeping duties for the very first time. In the interim not a single day has passed without a member of the Defence Forces standing guard, manning an observation post, or patrolling a zone of separation somewhere within the world’s most dangerous places. This a unique record of which the Defence Forces are very proud and in recognition of that achievement this issue of the Defence Forces Review focuses on Irish Peacekeeping - past, present, and future. My own article attempts to establish the context within which our contributors will develop their arguments and with Richard Heaslip and Declan Power we commence that process by looking back to our first deployments in Lebanon and the Congo. Kevin Myers then follows with an incisive analysis of what all of that actually meant to the Irish people, while Robert Fisk reviews our contribution to UNIFIL and John Moriarty reflects on his own experience of Lebanon over an incredible twelve tours of duty. Rory Finnegan takes up the story at this point and turns his attention to the difficulties currently faced by the United Nations organisation in a divided world, and Damien Coakley identifies the major lessons learned from out recent experience in Liberia. The use of force in UN mandated missions is examined in detail by Ray Murphy, while Mark Hearns and Tony Foley cast a cold eye over the difficulties associated with non-UN mandated missions and current trends in the Balkans respectively. The concluding section critically examines the UN organisation in the 21st century with Colm Doyle dissecting the reform process, Robert Johannson and Bob Zuber advocating the creation of a UN Emergency Peace Service, and Jean Marc Coicaud addressing the very future of the UN itself. In this manner we have attempted to explore issues across the full spectrum of International Peacekeeping and I am very grateful to all our contributors for their time, energy, enthusiasm and commitment to the aims and objectives of this journal. A publication such as this depends for it’s life’s blood on the willingness of contributors to identify relevant issues and then put pen to paper in order to address them. Therefore, an open ‘invitation to write’ is extended once again to all members of the wider Defence Community and we look forward to reading and publishing your work in the future as Ireland looks forward to building on past peacekeeping achievement in the months and years which lie ahead. Brendan O’Shea Lt Col BA. BCL. Dip.IHL(ICRC Geneva) PhD. Dedication This issue of The Defence Forces Review is dedicated to the memory of Lt Col Joe Buckley MA, 1st Field Artillery Regiment, who passed away last August after a long illness. Joe was a thoroughly professional soldier, an experienced peacekeeper, a committed humanitarian, a great friend, and an excellent scholar who passionately believed in the principles of the United Nations about which he wrote and lectured on several occasions. He also believed in the utility and relevance of this journal and contributed major articles to the first three issues. Therefore as we publish this special issue of “The Review” which is focused on Ireland’s 50 years of unbroken commitment to international peacekeeping it is appropriate that we remember someone who made a very significant and valuable contribution to that record both at home and overseas and touched the lives of so many people along the way. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dilis TABLE OF CONTENTS Article Title Page Punching Above Our Weight Living, Learning and Leading the Peacekeeping Evolution 1 Lt Col Brendan O’Shea Ireland’s First Engagement in United Nations Peacekeeping 11 Operations: An Assessment Col Richard Heaslip (Retd) Lessons from The Congo 23 Declan Power At-Tiri, or Bosnia Avoided: The Irish in UNIFIL 1978 – 95 33 Robert Fisk Healer of the Nation 45 Kevin Myers ‘Bullets, Bacteria and Boredom’ A Peacekeeping Memory of Lebanon – November 1978 – November 2001 51 Dr. John Moriarty The Nobel Lecture – 9 January 1989 59 Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Secretary-General of the United Nations Boots on the Ground and the Complexity of Modern Peacekeeping 65 Dr. Mike Cosgrave UCC United Nations in a Divided World 71 Comdt Rory Finnegan Article Title Page Lessons from Kosovo – The Use of Force by UN Mandated Forces 81 Dr. Ray Murphy Balkan Dilemma 95 Anthony Foley ‘New’ versus ‘No’ World Order – Non UN Peacekeeping and the implications for Conflict Resolution in the 21st Century 107 Commandant Mark Hearns UNMIL – A UN Success Story The End Product of UN Reform? 115 Comdt Damien Coakley The Process of Reform in United Nations Peace Operations 127 Colonel Colm Doyle (Retd) A United Nations Emergency Peace Service: To Prevent Genocide and Crimes against Humanity 135 Robert C. Johansen, Rapporteur A United Nations Emergency Peace Service: Proposal Update 144 Dr. Robert Zuber The Future of Peacekeeping 151 Dr Jean-Marc Coicaud, Director UN University Office, New York. ‘Carlsberg don’t do Peacekeeping’ A Peacekeeping Memory - Lebanon: October 1982 - May 1983 157 Lt Col Brendan O’Shea Short Biographical Statement 165 Punching Above Our Weight Punching Above Our Weight Living, Learning and Leading the Peacekeeping Evolution Lt Col Brendan O’Shea When the Charter of the United Nations was signed in San Francisco on the 26 June 1945 it is certain that none of the original signatories had any idea how the organisation they were founding would develop in the years ahead. It’s predecessor, the League of Nations1, had been established in 1920 in order to prevent war through collective security and the settlement of disputes through negotiation and diplomacy, but ended in complete failure as the world plunged into another international war. The omens certainly were not good, and the best any of the delegates could have hoped for was to clearly enunciate their aspirations and lay the foundations of something which might in the fullness of time develop into an international conflict resolution body. No more than the League of Nations, the new United Nations of 1945 could not be classed as anything more than an experiment - and a rather dubious one at that given the brutal events which had just preceded it’s foundation. Nevertheless, the founding fathers set out their hopes and aspirations in Article One of the Charter and remained convinced that there had to be a better way ahead. The aims of the United Nations, no more than those of The League of Nations, were clear and unambiguous…“to maintain international peace and security, and to that end take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to peace, and the suppression of actions of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, a conformity with the principles of justice in international law, and adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace”. In order to achieve these goals it followed logically that responsibility for their implementation had to be vested in something other than an unwieldy General Assembly, and so it was that primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security was vested in the Security Council with it’s composition, functions and powers set out in Chapter 52, specific duties in relation the pacific settlement of disputes in Chapter 36 , and action to be taken in the event of threats to the peace, breaches of the peace, and acts of aggression enunciated in Chapters 7 and 84.