Over
the years, the United Service Institution (USI) of India Journal has made a key
contribution to enlightening readers on the ongoing geopolitical situation,
national security, defence studies, and United Nations Peacekeeping. This 1st
Quarter (Jan-Mar 2023) Journal is a special edition which commemorates the
contribution of the United Nations in maintaining world peace, with highlights
of India’s contribution to United Nations Peacekeeping Operations.
The USI has played a stellar role in the
furtherance of India’s contribution to UN Peace Keeping. The Centre for UN
Peacekeeping (CUNPK), which was established and nurtured at the USI, became not
only a full-fledged unit of the Indian Army but also a regional node for
excellence in peacekeeping. The USI is endowed with an experienced resource
faculty, comprising India’s former permanent representatives to the UN,
diplomats who headed the UN division in the Ministry of External Affairs, Heads
of the Missions/Force Commanders and Deputy Heads of the Missions/Deputy Force
Commanders of UN Peacekeeping missions, Military Advisers to the Secretary-General
and those who have held advisory appointments at the UN HQ at the policy-making
level. Former practitioners of peacekeeping (both military and police forces)
make USI’s contribution to the field of peacekeeping creditable. Besides, USI
is a founding member of the Challenges Forum and regularly collaborates with
the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), Effectiveness of
Peacekeeping Network (EPON), and Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) on
different UN-related topics.
Our lead in organising international
courses in collaboration with the United Nations Institute for Training and
Research (UNITAR) is one such initiative taken by the USI. Within India, the USI has partnered with the
UN Women, the UN Resident Coordinator (UNRC), the International Committee of
the Red Cross (ICRC), and the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA). To make
it easier for the students of peacekeeping to refer to the scholarly
contributions to peacekeeping, the proceedings of all physical and web-based
peacekeeping events are being produced as Monographs both in print and
digitised form.
This special USI Journal covers a few
selected articles about the complex challenges faced by UN peacekeeping
such as the protection of civilians, freedom of movement and ever-increasing
crimes against peacekeepers, the effectiveness of UN peacekeeping in mandate
implementation, the future of UN peace operations, and also highlighting
India’s contribution to UN peacekeeping from the inception of peacekeeping
until its current contributions in the African Region.
The topics in this special issue range
from India’s first contribution to Korea to some of the complex ongoing
peacekeeping missions in the African Region as well as opinions and views on
the challenges that impact the performance of the peacekeeping missions. This
edition carries articles by practitioners of UN peacekeeping, UN professionals
and researchers, and academicians - both young and old - who have been part of
either the planning process or policy formulation or implementing the
mandate. Being the only institution in
India that engages in the academic work of peacekeeping, articles related to
peacekeeping get published in the journals of the USI from time to time. This however is the first special issue of
USI on UN peacekeeping. There is 15 well-researched articles, a brief on
Challenges Annual Forum 2022 and reviews of two recent USI publications on UN
peacekeeping in this issue.
In its pursuit to excel in the academic
field of UN peacekeeping, USI considers feedback and referral as the source of
motivation. As always, the USI Journal will strive to maintain the standard of
research and simple and pleasurable reading. The USI acknowledges the financial
assistance received from the ICSSR for this journal’s publication.
Happy
Reading!
Gp
Capt Sharad Tewari, VM (Retd)
Director Editorial