Table of Contents

Acknowledgements -- List of acronyms -- Introduction -- UN missions -- Chapter One Armed groups in modern warfare -- Roots of conflict -- Motivation (purpose and identities) -- Recruitment -- Popular support -- Logistics -- Command and Control (C2) -- Chapter Two Forming a response: UN missions -- Yugoslavia: UNPROFOR -- Somalia -- After 1999 -- Chapter Three Methods, challenges and opportunities for engagement -- Political process -- The role of the UN -- Engaging armed groups -- Negotiated disarmament -- Chapter Four Role and development of robust peacekeeping -- Levels of intervention and the functions of the military component -- Adherence to principle -- Robustness: the concept -- Presence, posture and profile -- Political-military interface -- Blowback and escalation -- Constraints -- Chapter Five Prioritising the protection of civilians -- Why do armed groups victimise civilians? -- Countering civilian victimisation -- Conceptual challenges -- Operational issues -- Information gap -- Conclusion -- The Horta Report -- Mandates and UN relations with TCCs -- Reforming the UN system -- Tailoring missions -- Appendix -- Index.

About the Author

Peter Nadin is an independent researcher based in Sydney, Australia. He has worked previously at the United Nations University in Tokyo. His research interests include the UN Security Council and UN Peacekeeping Operations. Peter holds a PhD from the University of Western Sydney.


Major General (ret’d) Patrick Cammaert has served with distinction as a senior commander in UN Peacekeeping Operations [in the Congo (MONUC), Ethiopia-Eritrea (UNMEE), Bosnia (UNPROFOR) and Cambodia (UNTAC)], and as military adviser at UN HQ. He is an expert advocate on leadership, conflict related sexual violence and peace operations. In 2008 he was awarded the Carnegie-Wateler Peace Prize.


Professor Vesselin Popovski is Vice Dean of the Law School and Executive Director of the Centre for UN Studies at Jindal Global University, India. From 2004-2014 he worked as Senior Academic Officer at the United Nations University in Tokyo.