Comments on: Collier and the libertarians, a conversation

By: Transitionland

Transitionland — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 22:12:41 +0000

But, I suppose you’re entirely correct if you just define peacekeeping in strictly “people with guns” terms.

By: Transitionland

Transitionland — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 22:08:42 +0000

The intervention in Kosovo may have been by NATO, but the international administration and peacekeeping (broadly defined) were run by UNMIK and the OSCE. True about Bosnia being a UN shitshow, but the UN was still more involved there –period– than in a lot of other places. That was my point.

By: Adam

Adam — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:58:34 +0000

“Collierâ€™s correct that Western intervention on its worst day couldnâ€™t be nearly so bad as colonialism on its best.”

Really? I’m not so sure. The mining, corruption and rape accusations against MONUC troops in the DRC vs some of the more benevolent interventions of colonial administrators is not such an easy comparison.

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:21:41 +0000

I agree those are perfect examples: it was unilateral action, not the UN that was able to make headway. In Bosnia he UN did nothing but talk itself in circles and impose one sided arms embargoes that made the situation worse. In Kosovo NATO, not the UN, imposed a bombing campaign. Russia opposed a hearty peacekeeping force–because it was in their backyard. But Russia’s veto in peacekeeping operations of the UN didn’t preclude NATO from acting unilaterally (call it plurilaterally if you like, but it wasn’t with UN permission). We learned from Bosnia that we can’t wait for the UN, and in Kosovo that bombing won’t work alone, you need peacekeepers on the ground. That makes for a sad story, because the UN is the only credible source of peacekeepers.

By: Transitionland

Transitionland — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:36:00 +0000

“My concerns are twofold. First, the UN only actively polices and peacekeeps in the political backwaters of no interest to the Security Council Five. Why do we think the ICC has yet to indict outside of central Africa?” -Blattman

What about Bosnia and Kosovo? Both of those were important to the P5.

It doesn’t follow that because UN peacekeeping in Chechnya and ICC indictments of former Bush Administration officials aren’t going to happen these kinds of interventions are therefore wrong elsewhere.

Would that international law applied equally to all states in practice, but we do not live in that world yet (knowing many international lawyers, I can assure you such a world is the stuff of their fondest dreams), and getting there will be slow going and require a measure of unfairness.

So be it. We must all work within reality’s confines while seeking to change them.