The Foreign Service Journal, November 2006

with civilian and military compo- nents are the main vehicle for assist- ing in regional security and recon- struction, but their record has been mixed. They have tended to func- tion better in the more peaceful northern regions than in the south, where Taliban activity is greatest. The U.N. mission has helped the country hold successful presidential and parliamentary elections and draw up a constitution. But Afghanistan’s police and mil- itary remain too weak for the fledgling government to exercise full control of the country. The chief of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, Thomas Koenigs, has appealed for more international support in training police and more money for the government to pay them. Koenigs told the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel in August: “There are districts there with 45 police officers for every 100,000 residents. That wouldn’t even work in Bavaria.” Liberia. In the aftermath of a vicious civil war that destabilized a large area of West Africa, the United Nations Mission in Liberia late last year helped the coun- try hold successful elections in which a former World Bank official, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, became Africa’s first female head of state. She pressed for the seizure and extradition of accused war criminal Charles Taylor to The Hague for trial, and has sought to put the country on a more stable economic footing. UNMIL, backed by a 15,000-strong force, has car- ried out a disarmament, demobilization and reintegra- tion program for the country’s warring factions. The United Nations also assists in police training, forming a new military and human rights activities. As of this past summer, more than 520,000 refugees and displaced Liberians had returned to their homes, a significant sign of hope for the country of three million. But despite the return of some confidence in the country’s future, there remains a profound lack of expertise in many essential jobs, especially the civil service. An August report by the United Nations Development Program said of the problem: “As it now stands, the public service is not only ill-equipped to deliver essen- tial services to the people, but is also unable to steer much-needed reforms.” Peacemaking Models Experts say nationbuilding mis- sions can only be judged a success about 10 years after the time inter- national forces withdraw. Examin- ed from that distance, the U.N. missions in El Salvador, Mozam- bique and Croatia’s region of East- ern Slavonia in the 1990s serve as useful case studies of relative suc- cesses. In El Salvador, the United Nations negotiated the set- tlement ending a 12-year civil war, helped reform the armed forces and reduce their size, created a new police force and reformed the judicial and electoral systems. A decade after the 5,000-member United Nations Obser- ver Mission in El Salvador withdrew, the country has made the transition to a peaceful democracy, although it continues to struggle economically and cope with a seri- ous urban crime problem. Despite the public safety con- cerns, where common crime has replaced war as the biggest security threat, there is little expectation the country can degenerate into civil conflict. The success of the peace agreement is attributed in part to the nature of the country’s civil war, in which rebels and government forces fought to a virtual stand- still. But experts also cite UNOSAL’s steady presence as an honest broker, and the role of regional parties in press- ing the two sides to make compromises and follow through with their pledges. Particularly important was the engagement of the United States, which had provided strong military back- ing to the government during the war but switched to an emphasis on negotiations under President George H.W. Bush. U.S. military assistance to the Salvadoran govern- ment dropped dramatically in the early 1990s and was then withheld contingent upon independent reports cer- tifying reforms and progress on human rights matters in the military. Experts believe that was the first time in his- tory that a military in Latin America permitted such external influence on its officer corps. Mozambique’s transition out of civil war happened nearly in parallel with El Salvador’s. Rebels supported by South Africa and former Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) had battled the Marxist government for near- ly 15 years until the United Nations brokered a peace agreement in 1992. In a country awash in small arms and F O C U S 26 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 6 The swiftness of East Timor’s decline into violence and instability caught U.N. officials off guard.