Mandating For Peace - An analysis of two UN peacebuilding mandates through a critical approach

Abstract: This essay examines the nature of contemporary UN peacebuilding mandates and the critique aimed at incorporating Western liberal ideas in postconflict peacebuilding missions. A critical discussion is provided to highlight the problems inherited in promoting liberal peacebuilding in peace operations, followed by an analysis and comparison of the mandates for UNAMSIL and UNMIS through an analytical framework of peacebuilding operations. The purpose is to assess if liberal peacebuilding strategies still are used in recent UN peacebuilding mandates, despite the critique raised against it. The study discovers that liberal peacebuilding still is visible in mandates issued for peace operations today, but appears to have greater recognition of some of the critique that is debated.