The World Organizing for Peace June 30, 2000

    Perhaps the most obvious way to deal with leaders and nations bent on defying accepted standards of international relations is to strengthen and sustain the growing number of multinational alliances and organizations concerned with peace.

    Multinational efforts in resolving conflicts have been growing for more than a decade. There have been 53 United Nations mandated peace, humanitarian, and observer missions through June 30, 2000. Thirty-five of these were initiated during the 1990s. As of June 30, 2000, 14 still exist manned by over 41,000 troops, military observers, police, and international civilians drawn from 84 countries. This number does not include the 20,000 members of SFOR from 33 nations (5,000 U.S.) or the 42,500 in KFOR from 36 nations (7,000 U.S.).
   This chart portrays the number of UN missions at the end of each year since 1989.
 

    The Security Council has also mandated a new Iraqi inspection regime, The Iraq Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission -- UNMOVIC -- to resume the work of the UN Special Commission in searching for weapons of mass destruction.
    In addition, the U.N. Secretary General is represented by 46 "special and personnel representatives or envoys." The U.N. has also initiated a  troop "standby" arrangement in which countries  designate the types of forces they are willing to contribute to peacekeeping. The drive behind these arrangements, to which 28 nations have formally committed themselves, is to speed the deployment of peacekeeping units in an attempt to prevent violence from spiraling out of control.

     There are alternatives to the U.N. Many regional organizations have security functions. Most promote confidence building measures such as transparency in arms production and stockpiles, controlling arms flows into their areas, and requiring members to announce military exercises. A few have mechanisms to help diffuse or resolve disputes: monitors, assistance groups, conflict resolution conferences, and – as a last resort – ad hoc military commands to suppress fighting.
    This chart lists major regional organizations that have evolved security functions in addition to their original purposes.
 

Regional Security Organizations

Organization, Number of Members	Date	Purposes and Comments
Organization for Security & Cooperation in Europe  /55	1973	Conventional arms control; confidence building measures; 23 advisory/monitoring missions or groups in the former USSR & Yugoslavia
Organization of African Unity  /53	1963	Promote unity; defend sovereignty of members; coordinate economic, diplomatic, educational, health, welfare, scientific, & defense policies
Economic Community of West African States  /16	1977	Political-economic development; defense & security; ECOMOG active in Liberia and Sierra Leone civil wars
Economic Community of Central African States  /11	1983	Economic development; constant war has undermined development efforts
South African Development Community  /14	1977	Peacekeeping, interstate defense & security cooperation
Maghreb Union  /5	1989	Socio-political & economic development; national training in peacekeeping
African Inter Governmental Development Authority  /6	1977	Political-economic & security cooperation; 5 members are involved in major conflicts
Organization of American States /35	1948	Nonintervention in internal affairs of members; peaceful settlement of disputes; limit conventional weapons arsenals; eliminate terrorism & illicit drugs
Association of East Asian Nations (ASEAN) /10	1967	Economic, social, cultural development; political & economic stability; forum to resolve intra-regional disputes
ASEAN Regional Forum /22	1994	Asian-Pacific security cooperation, confidence building, preventive diplomacy

      Unfortunately, this array of transnational organizations with the objective of promoting peace and security has not been able to prevent wars from occurring or even, in some cases, ameliorating the carnage. What we can affirm with confidence is that our world, in the absence of these organizations, would undoubtedly be an even more brutal place than it is today.
  This is, of course, no consolation to those who have been killed, maimed, or made refugees by depredations of war. On the other hand, for the many who have not been directly touched by war and have not had to spend all their energy simply trying to survive, there exists an opportunity and even an obligation to work for more effective multinational measures that will increase the chances for peace and economic prosperity throughout the world.