The Ethical  Impacts by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Peacekeeping Missions in Mitigating Complex African Conflicts: A Qualitative Approach

Nyoni Zibusiso; Darlington N.  Mahuku

doi:10.47540/ijcs.v4i1.1945

Authors

Nyoni Zibusiso Department of Peace and Governance, Bindura University of Science Education, Zimbabwe
Darlington N. Mahuku Department of Peace and Governance, Bindura University of Science Education, Zimbabwe

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47540/ijcs.v4i1.1945

Keywords:

Ethical Dilemmas, Military, Peace and Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping, United Nations Security Council

Abstract

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC), one of the main UN bodies, is charged with promoting and upholding international peace and security. The UNSC is empowered by resolutions to deploy peacekeeping forces to any crisis zone to preserve international peace and security. However, these UN peacekeeping missions have encountered moral conundrums in the course of their work using the DRC as a case study, this research sought to investigate the ethical dilemmas faced by UNSC peacekeeping operations in complex African complexes. The main objective of the study was to critically examine the ethical and community dilemmas that the UNSC's peacekeeping missions in the DRC had to deal with. The study used the constitutive theory as the main theory that formed the hinge of the study. Qualitative data was gathered from the Military, Police, Civilian, Prisons and Correctional Services, and diplomats who were selected for their particular experience and proficiency in peacekeeping missions. NVIVO 11 was used to analyze the collected data, and the results yielded themes that the researcher then presented verbatim. In this regard, the study revealed that the UNSC peacekeeping force is confronted with several moral dilemmas, including social disintegration, human casualties, constitutional crises, and UN Charter violations that have resulted in ceaseless wars. Therefore, the study recommends that African nations make security-related investments if they want to protect their national sovereignty from outside influence, reliance, and meddling. African nations must also be self-sufficient and not overly reliant on other nations to solve their problems.

References

Abass, A. (2017). The United Nations, The African Union and the Darfur crisis; Of Apology and Utopia. Netherlands International Law Review, 415-440. 241

Abate, G. B., & Woldie, A. T. (2022). Breaking barriers to women’s advancement in the public sector in Sub-Saharan Africa. Canadian Bureau for International Education.

Abu al-Haj, A. (2017). Principle of the State’s Sovereignty and the Phenomenon of Humanitarian Intervention under Current International Law. Canadian Social Science, 9(1), 116-134.

Adada, R. (2018). The UN Is Making a Difference in Darfur. The Wall Street Journal, 25 June.

Adebajo A., and Landsberg C. (2017). Back to the Future: UN Peacekeeping in Africa. International Peacekeeping, 7(4), 161-188.

Adebajo, A. and Landsberg, C. (2020). Pax Africana in the Age of Extremes. South African Journal of International Affairs, 7 (1), 11-26.

Adekanye, B. (1997). Arms and Reconstruction in Post-Conflict Societies. Journal of Peace Research, 34(3), 359–66.

Ademola, A. (2015). Consent Precluding State Responsibility: A Critical Analysis. The International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 53(1), 211-225.

Adeyeye, J. A., & Atidoga, D. F. (2021). African Union peacekeeping operations: Challenges and emerging issues. Sch Int J Law Crime Justice, 4(8), 492-511.

Anderson, K. (2014). Humanitarian Inviolability in Crisis: The Meaning of Impartiality and Neutrality for U.N. and NGO Agencies Following the 2003-2004 Afghanistan and Iraq Conflicts. Harvard Human Rights Journal, 17(41), 41-74.

Blair, R. A., Di Salvatore, J., & Smidt, H. M. (2022). When do UN peacekeeping operations implement their mandates?. American Journal of Political Science, 66(3), 664-680.

Chilunjika, A. (2024). Understanding the Roots of the Recurrent Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Conflict. African Renaissance, 21(4), 53.

Coleman, K.P. (2021). Innovations in African solutions to African problems‘: the evolving practice of regional peacekeeping in sub-Saharan Africa. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 49(04), 517 – 545.

Collins, C. (1992). Fatally flawed mediation: Cordier and the Congo crisis of 1960. Africa Today, 39(3), 5-22.

Collinson, S. E. S. and Muggah, R. (2020). States of fragility: stabilisation and its implications for humanitarian action. Disasters, 34(3), 275-296.

Cunliffe, P. (2019). The Politics of Global Governance in UN Peacekeeping. International Peacekeeping, 16(3), 323-336.

Dandeker, C and Gow, J. (1997). The future of peace support operations: strategic peacekeeping and success. Armed Forces and Society, (23), 327–47.

De Haas, H. (2018). The myth of invasion: the inconvenient realities of African migration to Europe. Third World Quarterly, 29(7), 1305-1322.

De Waal, A. (2015). Briefing: Darfur, Sudan: Prospects for Peace. African Affairs, 104 (414), 127-135.

Denisova, T. S., & Kostelyanets, S. V. (2023). The Democratic Republic of the Congo: Political instability and the Rwandan factor. Vestnik RUDN. International Relations, 23(1), 37-47.

Diehl, P.F. (1988). Peacekeeping operations and the quest for peace. Political Science Quarterly, 103(3), 485-507.

Dimbuene, Z. T., Nzuzi, R. M., & Kikhela, P. D. N. (2022). Poverty, education and health insurance coverage among women of reproductive ages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: a cross-sectional and multilevel analysis. BMJ open, 12(12), e064834.

Donais, T. (2025). Peacekeeping and the Protection of Civilians: From Moral Imperative to Effective Practice. Taylor & Francis.

Donald, D. (2020). Neutrality, Impartiality and UN Peacekeeping at the Beginning of the 21st Century. International Peacekeeping, 9(4), 21-38. 244

Dorn, W. (2013). The UN’s First Air Force: Peacekeepers in Combat, Congo 1960–64. Journal of Military History, George C. Marshall Library, Virginia Military Institute, 1-27.

Doss, A. (2014). In the Footsteps of Dr. Bunche: the Congo, UN Peacekeeping and the Use of Force. Journal of Strategic Studies, 37(5, Oct 2014), 703–735.

Douzinas, C. (2013). Humanity, Military Humanism and the New Moral Order. Economy and Society, 32(2), 159-183.

Durward, R. (2016). Security Council Authorization for Regional Peace Operations: A Critical Analysis. International Peacekeeping, 13(3), 350-365.

Ebegbulem, J.C. (2017). The Failure of Collective Security in the Post World Wars I and II International System. Transcience, 2(2), 23-30.

Enabulele, A.O. (2020). Humanitarian Intervention and Territorial Sovereignty: the Dilemma of two Strange Bedfellows. The International Journal of Human Rights, 14(3), 407-424.

Eriksson, J., Adelman, H., Borton, J., Christensen, H., Kumar, K., Suhrke, A., Tardif–Douglin, D., Villumstad, S. and Wohlgemuth, L. (1996). The international response to conflict and genocide: Lessons from the Rwanda experience. Synthesis Report. Copenhagen, Steering Committee for the Joint Evaluation of Emergency Assistance to Rwanda.

Gerard, T., & Thomas, G. N. (2023). The Past and the Future Effects of Russian-Ukrainian Conflict on the Democratic Republic of Congo Economic Policy. Futurity Economics & Law, 3(3), 202-219.

Kapteijns, L. (2023). Test-Firing the ‘New World Order’ in Somalia: the US/UN Military Humanitarian Intervention of 1992–1995. Journal of Genocide Research, 15(4), 421-442.

Kayode, P. A. (2024). Valuing a People-Centered Approach to the Protection of Civilians Following Peacekeeping Mission Withdrawal in Eastern DR Congo. Master's thesis. Norwegian University of Life Sciences).

Khan, A. A. (2022). The Ambiguities and Dilemmas in the Changing Principles and Practices of Peacekeeping-Perspectives from Experts and Soldiers on the Ground. Doctoral dissertation, CIPS, National University of Science & Technology, Islamabad.

Latif, M.I. and Khan, R.A. (2020). Peacekeeping Operations and State Sovereignty: Dilemma of Host State Consent. Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences, 30(2), 235-243.

Lepard, B. D. (2021). Challenges in implementing the responsibility to protect: the security council veto and the need for a common ethical approach. The Journal of Ethics, 25(2), 223-246.

Levine, D.H. (2021). Peacekeeper Impartiality: Standards, Processes, and Operations. Journal of International Peacekeeping, 15(3-4), 422-450.

Lipson, M. (2017). Peacekeeping: Organized Hypocrisy?. European Journal of International Relations, 13(1), 5–34.

Lucas Jr. G.R. (2019). This Is Not Your Father’s War” – Confronting the Moral Challenges of “Unconventional” War. Journal of National Security Law & Policy, 3(329), 329-340.

Maboko, A. K. (2021). Social Welfare and Social Work in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Social Welfare and Social Work in Southern Africa, 63.

Magu, S. M. (2021). Explaining Foreign Policy in Post-Colonial Africa. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

Massey, R. (2024). Ungendered Flesh: Racial Grammars in Western Engagements with Sexual Violence in the DRC. Millennium, 53(1), 222-248.

Murphy, R. (2016). UN Peacekeeping in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Protection of Civilians. Journal of Conflict and Security Law, 21(2), 209-246.

Ndikumana, L. (2016). Causes and effects of capital flight from Africa: lessons from case studies. African Development Review, 28(S1), 2-7.

Niggeler, C. G. (2021). The Worst Place in the World for Women: Understanding the Causes of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo: An Application of General Strain Theory. Contemporary Challenges: The Global Crime, Justice and Security Journal, 2, 80-99.

Nyongesa, A. (2024). Postmodern Reading of Contemporary East African Fiction: Modernist Dream and the Demise of Culture. Taylor & Francis.

Podder, S., & Manzillo, G. (2021). Reflection on labour hierarchies in peacekeeping: a study on the operational experiences of military peacekeepers. International Peacekeeping, 28(5), 701-731.

Quadri, M. O. (2021). Non-State Actors and Violence against Women in Africa. In The Palgrave Handbook of African Women's Studies (955-967). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Sengenya, C. M. (2022). Why we’re Protesting against the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Dr Congo. New Humanitarian.

Tunamsifu, S. P. (2022). The Colonial Legacy and Transitional Justice in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. African Journal on Conflict Resolution, 22(2), 85-110.

Väyrynen, R. (2023). To settle or to transform: perspectives on the resolution of national and international conflicts. In Raimo Väyrynen: A Pioneer in International Relations, Scholarship and Policy-Making: With a Foreword by Olli Rehn and a Preface by Allan Rosas (pp. 279-299). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Yuksel, A. (2023). African solutions to African problems: An assessment of the African Union (AU)'s policy implementation for peace and security in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since 2004.