Arab StatesUnited Nations peacekeeping
and conflict management:
historical background
The concepts of peacekeeping and conflict man-
agement are primarily classified under the rubrics
of political and military categorizations aimed at
instilling an impartial military presence in areas of
conflict in order to ease political tensions and allow
for diplomatic negotiations toward peace to occur.
The model for contemporary peacekeeping mis-
sions was initiated during the Arab-Israeli war of
1948 following United Nations Security Council
Resolution 50, dated 29 May 1948. The mission
was called the United Nations Truce Supervision
Organization (UNTSO) and is still considered an
active mission in the occupied territories of Pales-
tine and Israel. The United Nations has also main-
tained peacekeeping missions in the Golan Heights
(UNDOF) since 1974 and in Lebanon (UNIFIL)
since 1978 and has been carrying out missions with
the Palestinian Liberation Organization (UNSCO)
since 1999 and in Iraq (UNAMI) since 2003. Com-
pleted peacekeeping missions in the Arab world
include the following:
UN Program Country Initiated Completed
UNEF I Suez, Egypt 1956 1967
UNIGIL Lebanon 1958 1958
UNYOM Yemen 1963 1964
UNEF II Egypt-Israel 1973 1979
UNIMOG Iran-Iraq 1988 1991
MINUSRO Morocco 1991 1991
UNIKOM Iraq-Kuwait 1991 2003
UNASOG Chad-Libya 1994 1994
Through the course of development, peacekeeping
missions have evolved to incorporate conflict man-
agement personnel: these include the traditional
“Blue Berets” (the moniker given the international
soldiers comprising peacekeeping forces because of
their distinctive headgear); civilian police officers;
electoral experts and observers; de-miners; human
rights monitors; specialists in civil affairs and gov-
ernance; and experts in communication and public
information in order to ease the political and mili-
tary tensions and to promote the reconciliation and
reconstruction process.
Peacekeeping and Conflict Management
Despite the expansion of mission objectives to
incorporate aspects of conflict management, peace-
keeping issues are primarily analyzed through a
strongly militarized perspective of peacekeeping
and conflict management activities. This perspec-
tive is based on the highly patriarchal conceptual-
ization that the use of force through heavily armed
and state centered approaches is the only means
available to ensure peace. This ideal has a tendency
to perpetuate a cycle of violence that has yet to
prove completely effective in ensuring lasting peace
and reconciliation, particularly in the Arab world.
An essential query that is still not addressed in the
peacekeeping and conflict management equation is
how these militarized operations have impacted on
and affected women.
Until the adoption of Security Council Reso-
lution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (31
October 2000), the gender variable had not been
taken into account; the conduct of peacekeeping
and conflict management activities primarily as
military operations often resulted in a dispropor-
tionate amount of violence and injustice imposed
on women. Prior to the adoption of Resolution
1325, women’s contributions toward peace-building
and conflict resolution were not recognized as sig-
nificant factors to be incorporated into the organi-
zation of peacekeeping missions. Resolution 1325
reaffirms “the important role of women in the pre-
vention and resolution of conflict and in peace-
building, and stress[es] the importance of their
equal participation and full involvement in all
efforts for the maintenance of peace and security,
and the need to increase their role in decision-making
with regard to conflict prevention and resolution”
(UNSCR 2000).
Resolution 1325 called for four main themes to
be addressed during peacekeeping operations. The
first is the participation of women in decision-
making and peace processes: the number of women
in institutions and field operations should be
increased and women’s groups should be consulted
and included in actual peace processes. The second
theme is the creation of training guidelines and
materials to incorporate a gender perspective for all
peacekeeping personnel prior to their deployment.
The third is the adoption of a gender perspective
including measures that protect and respect the
human rights of women and girls. The fourth