Re: How does a UN force operate?

On Tue, 20 March 2001, Andy Cowell wrote:

> My question, then, is "How does a UN force operate?"	

All my books on UN peacekeeping forces are packed away.

My understanding is that the organizations maintain their structure and
composition based on the nation they are pulled from. So, Canadian
peacekeepers follow the standard Canadian TO&E. This makes a certain
amount of sense, as it's simpler to send whole units (at what level, I'm
not sure, but I think it's at the regimental level) to a war zone than
to send bits and pieces.

> To what extent is the UN
> able to dictate what forces are necessary (such as air war vs. ground
> war, or requiring more tanks, etc...?), or do they pretty much take
> what is supplied and work with that?

There must be a certain amount of negotiation, but typically for
peacekeeping it's almost entirely ground forces and logistic support for
the ground forces. There isn't a lot of air support, other than
transport. I think it's up to the forces involved as to what is sent.

I know when the US forces were in Somalia they had helicopter support,
but I think that was based on standard US Army organization. Canada has
sent Special Forces units into war zones, as has the US. A lot depends
on the mission and the area. Typically it's the army, though, that
shoulders the burden. 

> To what extent will given orders
> be disregarded by subordinates in foreign forces?

Well, now that's a really good question. Typically units are deployed in
their own nationality groups, but upper echelons can belong to another
nation. For instance, in Rwanda a number of Belgian peacekeepers were
slaughtered by local forces. The commander in chief in Rwanda was a
Canadian.

It would depend, I think, on the quality of the troops. Professional
troops, like the Canadians, would listen to whomever was in charge. US
troops tend to be the "big boy" in the area, and as such tend to be able
to say, "Hey, I'm here in Somalia. I'm in charge." In this case, it's
not much of a problem. Where you get problems are with less professional
armies. I remember hearing of an incident where peacekeepers of a nation
I won't mention did not obey orders from Canadians in charge. About the
worst that could happen to them is getting shipped out of the area, as
punishment is meted out by nation that supplied the forces. Again,
Canadians have been pretty professional about it. There was an incident
in Somalia that was covered up, where by a local was beaten to death
after being found inside the compound of the Canadian airborne regiment.
When it finally came to light the entire regiment was disbanded and the
offenders were imprisoned.

So, you're pretty much able to do anything you want. Maybe you might
want a reaction test involved, somewhere, when one nationality in your
UN force is activated to represent whether or not they take orders from
another nationality.

Allan Goodall - agoodall@canada.com
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