Current Emerging Trends in International Peacekeeping and the Management of Intra-State Conflicts in West Africa

Abstract

The resolve of this modest study was to investigate the extent to which current evolving trends in international peacekeeping have influenced the management of intra-state conflicts in the West African sub-region in particular and the international community at large. Hitherto, most conflicts across the globe were mainly inter-state. In contemporary times however, the terrain is dominated by complex intra-state conflict); thereby necessitating more appropriate techniques to manage such conflicts. Increasingly, international peacekeeping has proven its relevance in this respect. Indeed this process having been enhanced significantly by a corresponding paradigm shift in peacekeeping activities, that now embraces multifunctional activities other than the traditional observation tasks. Today, these tasks mainly include: observation tasks, maintenance of law and order, humanitarian assistance, peace-building, policing, electoral assistance, disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of ex-combatants. Another significant innovation is that peacekeeping is no longer the preserve of soldiers alone as it has come to involve civilian and police personnel and even many non-UN actors. The main objective of this paper is to appraise how these evolving trends have enhanced the output of peacekeeping operations; within the context of the Liberian Civil War. And as I have tried to demonstrate, Liberia owes much of its success story today to the multidimensional operations that were initialed there by the ECOWAS, UN and many other actors over the years. This investigation which has implications for international policymakers, practitioners, international institutions, non-governmental organizations and the academia alike, has mainly adopted secondary and tertiary data (also made use of legal, historical, analytical and sociological approaches) to arrive at the following findings that: current evolving trends have enhanced in no small way the output of international peacekeeping operations across the globe; peacekeeping operations have contributed immensely  in resolving intra-state conflicts in West Africa; and lastly peacekeeping is still the most relevant and effective conflict management tool today and in the foreseeable future. What however is required is a highly innovative peacekeeping system that is capable of addressing some attendant challenges within the system.

Key Words: Current, emerging, trends, international peacekeeping, management, intra-state conflicts, West Africa.