A Study On United Nations Peacekeeping Operations In Liberia After The Cold War

Since the end of cold war, with the disappearance of the bipolar structure, manycontradictions which used to be covered in the bipolar system surfaced. Due tointernal instability, civil wars broke out in some countries. As the most importantinternational security cooperation mechanism, United Nations PeacekeepingOperations experienced great development which reflects UN‘s efforts formaintaining global peace. Although United Nations Peacekeeping Operations make agreat contribution to regional peace and stability, it faces many challenges.Liberia is a small country in West Africa, with complicated internalcontradictions. The civil war began before the cold war ended, lasted from1989to2003. During the civil war, the ECOMOG interfered from beginning to the end, resultin little effects. The United Nations play a role from unimportance to significancewhich is worth to study. From the establishment of UNOMIL to the close of UNOLafter Liberia‘s1997election, the goals of the United Nations are limited, that makesthe situation of Liberia reversed. Then the United Nations invested more resourcesinto Liberia, formed UNMIL with larger size and longer duration. UNMIL is amultidimensional operation makes great effects concerns disarmament,demobilization and reintegration, resisting corruption and support nationalreconciliation as well as regional coordination and so on.To examine UNMIL‘s forming and operation mechanism entails a retrospectiveof UN‘s former peacekeeping operation as well as Liberia‘s civil war situations andECOWAS‘s peacekeeping operation. Research of the United Nations peacekeepingoperations is a meaningful subject, at the same time, constructing Liberia‘s goodgovernance is also an important research focus in international relations. The task ofUNMIL still going on, while the new type peacekeeping operations paid off, newchallenges are lie ahead.