When the 1948 Arab-Israeli War ended in a cease-fire agreement, the international community recognized that an independent monitoring mechanism offered the best chance of maintaining the fragile peace process. 75 years ago, the U.N. peacekeepers were deployed for the first time. Their mission in that conflict would become the template for U.N. peacekeeping operations for decades to come: Bringing stability to tenuous and uncertain post-conflict environments.
Source: United States Institute of Peace
Source: Canadaland Podcast April 8/24
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‘Canadians have long thought of themselves as peacekeepers. But can we still make that claim today? Amid all of the the outrage towards our government over its relationship with Israel, are any protesters calling on Trudeau to send peacekeeping troops over there to intervene? When the guns finally fall silent there will likely be a call for some sort of peacekeeping force. But will Canada still be ready, or even willing, to resume our traditional role?
There’s really just one statistic worth sharing here to illustrate that Canadians have lost nearly all capacity for peacekeeping. In the mid 1990s, there were over 3000 Canadian troops deployed as UN peacekeepers around the world. Today there are 60. That means we’re now at 2% of our former capability. What the hell happened? ‘
canadaland podcast 978
At April 2023, Bangladesh was contributing 6,500 soldiers to United Nations peacekeeping missions, the highest number of any country. Nepal followed with 5,800 troops, while India contributed just above 5,500 troops. Except for Italy, all the top 20 contributors were countries in the Global South.
source -Statista.com
Selection of art works produced as video and drawings in 1993 based on AHMacKay’s war artist assignment as part of Canada’s partcipation in United Nations Operation in Somalia UNOSOM. Collection of the Canadian War Museum.
Drawings (4)
Video stills (9)
