SHOULD PEACEKEEPERS BE POLICING FAILED STATES LIKE HAITI?
John Bolton: I think it is a distortion to some extent but the real issue, in cases of civil war or conflicts across borders, is whether in fact the UN is contributing to a solution to the problem or is actually helping to perpetuate the problem. Too often we get involved in one of these operations because people say it’s important to show we are concerned about a particular humanitarian situation. I think in these cases people look at the conflict and say “This is too hard to solve but I don’t want to be blamed for ignoring it so I’ll set up a peacekeeping operation.” That then allows them to say “Well, the UN is handling that” which, in many cases, is a not very subtle way of saying “Nobody is handling it”. But for the diplomats, it gets the issue off their desks, and oftentimes that is the real objective. Unfortunately, it leaves the people who are the victims of the conflict without an immediate solution and oftentimes means that the conflict will go on and on, with nobody particul
