Dominic Marcus Kenule
Research Fellow
National Defence College Nigeria
Centre for Strategic Research and Strategic Studies
Department of Area and Regional Studies (DARS)
Email: marcdom52@gmail.com

&

Ali Nathaniel
Research Fellow
National Defence College Nigeria
Centre for Strategic Research and Strategic Studies
Department of Governance and Public Policy (DGPP)
Email: nathanielaliedoka@gmail.com

Abstract
Peace support operations (PSOs) are one of the most crucial tools for conflict prevention and stabilising peace and security in conflict-affected states. History shows that Haiti projects the image of a country where life is not just nasty and brutish but also short and full of uncertainties. This gives context to why the international community today classifies Haiti as a fragile state that has functioned to fulfill the needs of its elite class while offering little or no benefits to the citizenry. An understanding of Haiti’s turbulent history is critical to identifying the political realities which shaped the United Nation’s peace-building efforts in Haiti. Using the liberal theory of international organisations as the framework of analysis, this paper examines the UN’s PSOs through the Instrumentality of the UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti, (MINUSTAH). Secondary data using the content analysis method was used. The paper revealed that UN PSOs like MINUSTAH are crucial for establishing and sustaining peace during and after conflict. Though MINUSTAH restored a largely secure and stable environment in Haiti, difficulties nonetheless persisted as MINUSTAH’s presence in Haiti was marked by several internal and external shocks, affecting its stabilisation agenda. The paper recommends among other things that evolving UN missions should ensure a coherent, coordinated, and integrated approach to reform in the areas of Demobilisation, Deradicalization, and Reintegration (DDR), police, justice, corrections, and human rights, by utilizing and formalising the rule of law group.
Keywords: United Nations, Peace Support Operation (PSO), Peacekeeping, Peacebuilding, MINUSTAH

 

Introduction
While not always clearly expressed, human nature is the immediate basis of all human actions, including conflicts and wars. Conflict is a universal phenomenon that has directly or indirectly affected all states. Conflicts occur in diverse forms, sometimes between individuals, and groups in a state, states, or between non-state actors, and it can be attributed to internal and external causal factors. These causal factors of conflict are associated with bad governance, ethnic intolerance, massive human rights abuses, poverty, and failure of the state (Best, 2006). From the colonial period till contemporary times, Haiti has primarily functioned to fulfil the needs of its elite class while offering little or no benefits to the masses. From a historical standpoint, Haiti reflects the Hobbesian state of nature where life is not uncertain but also short, brutish, and nasty. This perception of the image of the Haitian state provides the necessary contextualization of Haiti as a fragile state, classified by the inability or unwillingness of the government to provide essential fundamental services to its people, particularly the economically disadvantaged class. Haiti’s tumultuous played a critical role in determining the approach and dimension of the UN’s peacebuilding effort in the country. Being a product of colonial expansionism, the Haitian state has been ruled by different colonial powers. From the Spanish colonial powers from 1492- 1697 to the French colonialists from 1697-1804. these colonial powers acquired and sustained power through pitted military battles. Slaves from Africa were brought to Haiti during the colonial period to augment the loss of members of the local population during the slave revolt. This brutal colonial administration was characterised by near-continuous cycles of slave revolt and resistance l which resulted in the French colonial

8 MB

Leave a Comment