Rhetoric versus reality in the rise of policing in UN peace operations: ‘More blue,less green’?

ABSTRACT

United Nations police (UNPOL) have become increasingly important to operational effectiveness of peace operations. For some time, their contribution to re-establishing the rule of law in conflict-affected states has been seen as a cornerstone for building sustainable peace and enabling mission exit strategies. In a departure from traditional peacekeeping and post-conflict assistance, recent years have seen UN peace operations directed to stabilise countries and protect civilians in the context of on-going violent conflict. As a result, UNPOL have had to undertake a range of expanded tasks, exacerbating long-standing challenges and producing new impediments to their operational effectiveness. At the same time, a ‘pragmatic turn’ is generating increased interest in more police-centric concepts of peacekeeping as a possible alternative to today’s expensive and military-focused peace operations. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in multiple peace operations and at UN headquarters, this article examines the changing roles of UNPOL in a new breed of UN peace operations, identifies the major associated challenges and proposes a series of recommendations for overcoming them. It argues that if police are to respond to unfolding challenges while becoming more central to peacekeeping outcomes, then significant reforms and further research into their impacts will be required.     

PREDICTING LUNAR ECLIPSES IN NORTHERN LATITUDES BY NAKED EYE OBSERVATION

We investigate methods which may have been found appropriate for predicting lunar eclipses in northern Europe, where naked-eye astronomy has to be adapted to conditions, which are different from those found at lower latitudes and in places with less cloud cover. The ecliptic is lower in the sky, and transient phenomena cannot reliably be observed under these astronomical viewing conditions. We consider those techniques, which only require the use of objects made of wood, stone and soil, which use no written records, and which require no understanding of celestial mechanics. We show that it should have been possible to answer the question ‘Is there going to be a lunar eclipse, either tonight or tomorrow night?‘ with surprising accuracy. We include an analysis of the nature of some of the artefacts, which may have been helpful in doing so.