No More Rwandas!: Protecting the Innocents

Questions for Further Discussion

“No More Rwanda’s: Protecting the Innocents”

Learning Goal: To explore and understand the dilemmas of international intervention.

Learning Methods: Assign one or more of the following questions to students individually, in pairs, or in small groups for discussion.   Consider asking them to present their findings to the class in a short presentation, project or research assignment.

Terms:

Peacekeeping                                                                         Peacebuilding

1.   Stimson Center’s Victoria Holt asserts, “…if a country can no longer protect its own people from genocide, from ethnic cleansing or mass killing, [and] large scale atrocities, [then], but only then, [other countries] sovereignty falls away and the international community has a responsibility to protect those civilians.” However, what if it is the nation itself that is the aggressor, perpetrating crimes against its own civilians due to ethnic/religious/minority differences? As Mark Schneider of the International Crisis Group asks, at what point does the international community have a responsibility to protect?

2.  The overarching question in this program is centered on the idea of international intervention. Mark Sommer asks, “When does the international community have the right to stop a government from doing something, and at what point does the international community have a responsibility to protect?”   Discuss these two questions and how they differ. What are the implications for both the intervening nation and the region in conflict?  Additionally, how does an intervening force address prevention, reaction, and rebuilding with an uncooperative nation

3.  Historically, soldiers have been trained to take action by military force, but peacekeeping requires a different skill set. What is this skill set and in what ways might a military or alternate force be trained to handle such tasks as protection of civilians? Based on lessons in Iraq and Afghanistan, what specifically is needed in terms of better pre- deployment training?

4.  Victoria Holt gives an example of one of the challenges facing military personnel and peacekeeping forces on the ground when she discusses a civilian woman carrying a baby. She suggests that the same civilian might also be carrying a bomb. How does/might a military or peacekeeping force train for these kinds of decisions and this sort of civilian engagement?

5.  General William Nash, former Director of the Center for Preventative Action at the Council on Foreign Relations, invokes the phrase “consequences of peace” in cautioning against international intervention without an ability and willingness to thoroughly aid a region in its rebuilding process. What are some potential consequences of peace? Look at a specific example, such as that offered by Mark Sommer in the Balkans, and discuss what lessons might be learned from such post war consequences.

Innovation in Action: Additional Assignments

1.  It has been suggested that the most prevalent indicator of whether a nation will in fact move into conflict is whether there has been unrest in the region recently (within five years). Mark Schneider suggests that if we were to work to strengthen the post-conflict reconstruction capabilities of these areas, we might avoid future conflict. What, specifically, can or should be done to strengthen post-conflict areas? Is there a model of “best practices” in approaching these areas and their needs? If so, what should it look like and who should be responsible for its design and implementation? Keeping in mind that each region would have region specific needs, design a general plan that attempts to address a region’s post-conflict needs in a universal sense.  For a comprehensive list of post-conflict reconstructions tasks and the elements they represent, see the list Reconstruction Tasks, found in the left sidebar.  The list is part of the teaching and learning guide “Rebuilding Societies After Conflict”, developed by the United States Institute of Peace.  To access the complete guide including lesson plans, answer sheets and additional worksheets, please visit http://www.usip.org/etc/tools_resources/guides/rebuilding.pdf.

2.  Consider question five in the discussion questions concerning military personnel that are faced with the increasing threat of not being able to tell the difference between civilian and threatening circumstances. Brainstorm and research training techniques that are designed to help soldiers in modern, urban and often confusing warfare scenarios.

3.  International lawyer John Stomper discusses international and national tribunals established to prosecute war crimes/criminals. How do these tribunals function and under what jurisdiction? Examine some of the cases being tried in the International Criminal Court (http://www.icc-cpi.int/ ).  How successful is the court in administering justice?  Who defines what constitutes justice? 

4.  What accounts for the shift away from international, large-scale conflict (WWI, WWII, and the Cold War) to smaller scale, intra-national civil wars?   How has the U.S. and the international community responded to this shift?  How have the ‘rules of engagement’ changed in dealing with internal, civil wars as opposed to nation vs. nation?