Understanding crisis response : the case of UNIFIL and peacekeeping in South Lebanon

Abstract

UNIFIL arrived in South Lebanon in 1978 with the mission to ensure the retreat of Israeli military forces from the country, protect the local civilian population and survey the non-violation of the demarcation line separating Israel from Lebanon. The missions’ mandate was extensively modified in the summer of 2006 after a month long war between Israel and Hezbollah, which caused great amounts of civilian deaths and damage to infrastructure on the Lebanese side, and extended the size of the mission from about 2000 to 15000 soldiers. UNIFIL has thus undergone important changes in its nature, broadening its mission from ceasefire monitoring and protection of civilians to providing humanitarian aid and services to the people of South Lebanon. However, many critics argue that UNIFIL is merely a tool, disguised as a necessary actor for the development of South Lebanon, that serves the interests of the United States of America and its allies, mostly within the Liberal International Order (LIO), and is intended to restrain the activities of Hezbollah and ensure that Lebanon, and-or any force within its borders, would not be capable of posing any type of threat to Israel. With this critique come notions of neocolonialism, forceful involvement of the LIO and neoliberalism into Lebanon, as well as a questioning of the definition of international peacekeeping. This project examines the crisis management strategies and guidelines of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in order to better understand how this peacekeeping force is intended to, and how it currently operates. In clarifying this aspect of UNIFIL, this project would make use of their crisis management strategy as an introductory case study to be used in a critique of the peacekeeping mission. My research focused on UNIFIL civil affairs and military personnel using quantitative research to provide an understanding of the crisis management strategy. Then, in order to provide insight on existing critiques of UNIFIL, a qualitative analysis was c