Peacekeeping And Non-intervention:Understanding China’s Attitude Towards United Nations Peacekeeping

The world was saddled with numerous conflicts during the first decade of the21st century. Institutions such as the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU) and great powers including the United States (US), the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have raised this issue in trying to find resolutions for maintaining peace and security in the world. However, to reach that common objective, the means diverge among these institutions or these great powers. Discussing the recourse to resolve conflict, whether by intervening and providing assistance to belligerents or by non-interference, has pushed the writer to examine a new agenda.This thesis aims to understand the changing pattern of China’s policy towards United Nations peacekeeping body. The policy that shifts from the respect of non-intervention of a sovereign nation’s internal affairs to a major global actor. The main issue for this paper is to know why China changed its attitude towards the United Nations peacekeeping body. Several questions should be taken into consideration including the role and the objective of the UN Peacekeeping body; how could the non-intervention Policy be a good way in making and maintaining peace and security in the world.From these questions, this research will highlight prominently the process that UN peacekeeping goes through with its missions by discussing the UN peacekeeping operations called respectively UNOSOM (I and II) and MONUC. These two operations were undertaken by the UN in Africa after the end of the Cold War when the world system (all the UN branches including, of course, UN peacekeeping body) was under the whims and caprices of a hegemonic power. It will emphasize also on understanding the fact that China, as a member of the UN Security Council, opposed most UN decisions in terms of intervention before and participates actively as well nowadays. The thesis will also cover the role of China’s foreign policy in shaping the UN Security Council decisions and actions on a conflict during the same period. The analysis will place more emphasis on the interaction of the two principles (peacekeeping and non-intervention).In so doing, the writer will be able to gain acknowledgment from different choices taken by decision-makers to maintain peace and security in the world and specifically the researcher will have a clearer understanding of China’s policy evolution. It is also expected from this work to conclude that the development of a country could change the draft of the policy decision.The first chapter will highlight the aim and the justification of the study but more importantly the review of the current research. It starts by the raise of the topic that achieving peace and security represents the most important issue to international system in this21st century. However, to reach this objective (peace and security), the means diverge amongst policymakers and politicians. On one hand, intervention is needed to solve conflict between belligerent parts. After proving that peacekeeping is a form of intervention, the writer argues that this operation usually taken by UN is one way to build and maintain peace in the world system. On the other hand, the non-intervention policy that China has respected and promoted to the world system since its foundation is the other means of achieving world peace. The non-intervention policy means beyond this perspective because it can be also seen as the best way to respect nations’sovereignty and their internal affairs.The second chapter is going to emphasize on the theory surrounding the concepts of peacekeeping and non-intervention. It will first begin by elaborating how the international schools of thought study these concepts. As far as peacekeeping is concerned, peace and security, and peace operations have to be theorized by looking at realism (and neorealism) perspective, liberalism (and neoliberalism) and constructivism. Realists have expressed a very pessimistic view of possible peace and security within the world system. Liberalism argues that the world system is not only about power but also idealism by giving social interests and values of states. Constructivism, however, has been prone to be "idea-centric". It relies on the fact that world peace and security is based on shared value rather than material force. Regarding non-intervention, sovereignty and self-determination are the key ideas of the theory according to the same international relations’ school of thought cited above.Two of several missions that the UN has carried out in Africa will be the case studies and the third chapter of this thesis. To understand these ideas of peacekeeping and non-intervention, two cases, respectively called UNOSOM (I and II) and MONUC, will be discussed in this section. The United Nations Operation in Somalia I and II are two missions that UN monitored in Somalia from1992to1995. The missions were set up to facilitate humanitarian aid to people trapped by civil war and famine. The missions developed into a broad attempt to help stop the conflict and reconstitute the basic institutions of a viable State. In this operation, the work will explain why China has stayed passive towards UN peacekeeping. The second case is the Mission of the United Nations in the Democratic Republic of Congo known as MONUC (acronym of the name in French) in1999to30June2010. This operation is one of the missions in which China has participated in Africa but more importantly beyond the Asian continent.In chapter four, the analysis of the topic will start by putting forward the context that world politics is changing its pattern to a new world order. The researcher argues that the end of the Cold War which disrupts the world system contributes in so many areas to the changing policy of China towards the United Nations in general. It also has to be noted that, for the next section, the evolution of the United Nations-Department of Peacekeeping Operation (UN-DPKO) has helped China to better understand the objective of peacekeeping operations. As we know, during the Cold War, peacekeeping was considered as traditional which only focused to demonstrate powers and weapons. The next argument, to conclude this chapter, is that China’s growing economy tends to point out its rising power on a global scale. In this case, China fears that the world, especially developing countries, sees her as a non-responsible major power and this could obstruct its rapid growth.The last chapter will be the conclusion of the work. It first evaluates the meaning of the concepts of peacekeeping and non-intervention. It will argue that peacekeeping and non-intervention are two opposite views that have both its advantages and limits. Then the writer will point out solutions regarding the issue by criticizing the UN-DPKO of its lacking points on one hand; and on the other hand showing that China’s changing attitude towards UN peacekeeping might be the result of its huge demand of energy. Finally, the future prospect of the topic will be put forward by predicting the role of China in the world system once it reaches the pinnacle of its history.