Commemorating International Peacekeeping Day at IPI on May 24th, Harjit Singh Sajjan, Canada’s Minister of National Defence, said, “We must understand the reality of conflict today.”
The minister, a former peacekeeper in Afghanistan and Bosnia-Herzegovina, said, “It is Canada’s belief that addressing the root causes of conflict is a precondition of success.”
In recent years, defense ministerials led by the United States in 2015 and United Kingdom and 2016 were key forums for countries to make pledges to UN Peacekeeping. IPI’s Providing for Peacekeeping project maintains a database tracking such pledges.
Canada will host this year’s Peacekeeping Ministerial Meeting in Vancouver in November, and Mr. Sajjan said it would focus on “the three P’s”—pledging, planning and performance—but would also spotlight the need for partnerships.
“We need partnerships with governments, civil society and private actors, particularly in the areas where the United Nations faces gaps,” he said. “We will explore ways to protect vulnerable populations.”
He cited in particular the value of involving local business communities because they have a “knowledge base of their communities” and because they can increase security through job creation.
In that connection, he remembered that when he first went to Afghanistan, he was “naïve” about the value of employment and thought instead “it was all about ideology and the Taliban.”
“But it wasn’t,” he continued. “It was about money and power. If you offer a job to a youth in Afghanistan, he’ll take it. If you give them a gun and power, they’ll take that too, why wouldn’t they?” He said the Taliban enjoyed success because “they offered jobs.”
As for Canada’s own peace operations, Mr. Sajjan said he wanted to adopt what he called “the integrated approach.”
“This is essential,” he said. “We’re not just talking about sending troops, we’re talking about political engagement, capacity building, development, disease prevention, and we need to integrate all this into one because, as we know, conflict impacts populations, the disparity between the rich and the poor, and radical groups. We need to understand the environment that we’re getting into, making sure that we contribute properly so we have the impact on the ground.”
Adam Lupel, IPI Vice President, noted that the number of peacekeepers who had died in the line of duty had now passed 3,500, and shows no sign of decreasing, and that this year’s Peacekeeping Day was dedicated to their memory.
In answer to a question about how to protect peacekeepers at a time when fatalities among them are on the rise, Mr. Sajjan said, “certain troops might get targeted because they don’t have the right equipment.” He also noted, “some nations may not have the same level of training.”
Canada has established gender parity in the cabinet of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and Mr. Sajjan said that experience would inform the country’s attitude about peacekeeping. “This is not about tokenism,” he said. “We are not tapping into the entire population if we don’t do this, we are shooting ourselves in the foot if we don’t do this.”
The event was held as part of the IPI Speaker Series.
IPI’s Adam Lupel moderated the conversation.
Inter Alia, the South-East Europe Programme/ ELIAMEP and Kosovo Foundation for Open Society (KFOS) explore ον 2 and 3 June 2017 the Unknown Balkans through discussions with distinguished experts specializing in the Balkans region. Aiming at a comprehensive approach of the social and political structures of the Unknown Balkans, the program also includes cultural content regarding the region. The event will take place at Hub (5 Alkminis str., 118 54 Athens) from 10 am until 8 pm.
Discussion Panels:
Guests, among others:
Cultural Content:
The programme is available here.
For registrations please visit here.
Marie-Cécile Naves, chercheuse associée à l’IRIS, répond à nos questions à l’occasion de sa participation aux 9e Entretiens européens d’Enghien organisés par l’IRIS et la Ville d’Enghien-les-Bains le 20 mai 2017 :
– En quoi le multilatéralisme représente-t-il un défi pour Donald Trump ?
– Comment se définit la ligne de politique étrangère menée par Donald Trump ?
– Avec la venue prochaine de Trump sur le continent, comme l’Union européenne doit-elle réagir ?
Research Fellow of ELIAMEP, Dr Filippa Chatzistavrou, analyses the Greek crisis in L’Express. You can read the article here (in French).
Associate Professor at the University of Athens and Senior Research Fellow at ELIAMEP Dimitri A. Sotiropoulos wrote an article about the French Revolution in the Sunday edition of To Vima newspaper. The article was published on 21 May 2017 and is available here (in Greek).
Antes que decidir cómo se cumple el compromiso de incrementar el presupuesto de Defensa al 2% del PIB, debe reflexionarse sobre los objetivos estratégicos y las capacidades militares, así como los retornos industriales y tecnológicos, asociados con esa inversión.
Le point de vue de Pascal Boniface, directeur de l’IRIS.
Dr Evangelia Psychogiopoulou delivered a speech on the competences of the EU in the field of cultural heritage and their exercise at the Conference Cultural heritage in the European Union: Legal perspectives and contemporary challenges. The conference was organised by the University of Fine Arts in Poznań, the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, in cooperation with the Santander Art and Culture Law Review, on 20-21 April 2017, in Warsaw Poland. On 2 May 2017, Dr Psychogiopoulou discussed EU cultural governance in a closed expert workshop Beyond us versus them – The role of culture in a divided Europe, organised by ifa (Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations), the State of Baden-Württemberg, and EUNIC (European Union National Institutes for Culture) in Brussels, Belgium.
Rusia, Irán y Turquía cuentan con tropas sobre el terreno sirio y las negociaciones sobre la paz apuntan a una consolidación de las realidades establecidas, no a un intento de cambiarlas.