아세안

The number and size of UN and Allied peacekeeping deployments[1] have increased dramatically since the end of the Cold War [1], as have the budgets that support them. The UN budgeted 7.23 billion USD for the 2012-2013 fiscal year for UN Peacekeeping operations.[2] An explanation for this increase is likely to be found in two global trends seen in armed conflict in recent years: first, that nearly all wars in the world today are fought within countries, and second, the unprecedented rise in peace agreements as a means to end conflict [2]. Both of these factors present new challenges for peace-building as former enemies must continue living side by side when the conflict has ended, in a continuous negotiation for peace. Research suggests that international peace support operations indeed have the potential to improve the chances for preventing further conflict. In the first global, quantitative analysis on the effect of peacekeeping operations (PKOs), Doyle and Sambanis found a significant and substantial effect of peacekeepers on peacebuilding two years post conflict [3]. This finding is similar to later studies. For example, Fortna demonstrated that the risk of further conflict drops by 75%–85% with the presence of a PKO [4, 5]. Other research has found that PKOs limit the temporal and spatial contagion of conflict [6], and can also have a preventive effect, reducing the risk of genocidal violence [7]. However, recent research has also found that peacekeeping operations in settings where there is not yet peace or stability, such as Afghanistan, may entail the risk of spurring violence against civilians by rebel groups if the deployment does not have an explicit mandate to protect civilians [8]. Similarly, when looking at other definitions of success aside from the prevention of further conflict, such as meeting the goals of the mandate, or establishing basic democracy and stability – a governance goal for most current deployments – the impacts of operational deployments are less clear [9, 10]. With regards to the peacekeepers themselves and the effect these missions have on psychological health and well-being, an extensive body of literature has studied returned American servicemen from Vietnam and Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan, covering issues of psychological ill-health from alcoholism and suicide to the adverse effects of a negative homecoming experience [11, 12]. As this review will show however, less is known of soldiers from other countries as well as the long-term effects of peacekeeping on psychological well-being. With the notable exception of the US millennium cohort study[3], longitudinal studies in the field are rare but increasingly called for [13]. In the following, an overview of current research in a range of areas concerning the psychological well-being of returning peacekeepers will be presented, and some research gaps highlighted.