You are here: Sample ChaptersSample Chapter
Chapter 1 - Peace Operations in Global Politics
This chapter investigates different ways of understanding peace operations and their relationship to broader processes and trends within global politics. As the number and range of peace operations has grown, so too has the number of theories and concepts used to understand them. Meanwhile, processes of globalization are transforming global politics from an activity primarily involving states to one characterized by transnational relations between different types of politically signifi cant actors which are connected by potentially global communications. Both the theory and practice of peace operations have been indelibly shaped by this changing global context. Initially, peacekeeping was concerned chiefl y with creating the conditions for the peaceful settlement of disputes between states. This approach to peacekeeping is most closely associated with a Westphalian approach and ‘traditional peacekeeping’ (see chapter 7).
On the other hand, new post-Westphalian conceptions of liberal peace insist that, because liberal democratic states are peaceful in their relations with one another, peace operations need to be in the business of fostering and maintaining a world order based on liberal democracy. Buttressing these claims are shifting conceptions of sovereignty. Whereas the Westphalian order rested on a notion of sovereignty that granted states protection from interference by outsiders, the post-Westphalian account is based on the notion of ‘sovereignty as responsibility’ – the idea that sovereigns enjoy the right to non-interference only insofar as they protect the fundamental rights of their citizens.
