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United Nations Military Adviser for Peacekeeping Operations*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 March 2014
The spectrum of peacekeeping operations has grown increasingly broad and has come to include various – and sometimes simultaneous – dimensions, such as conflict prevention, peacekeeping, peacemaking, peace enforcement and peacebuilding. With the ascendancy of more robust peacekeeping mandates, such as the one assigned by United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution 2098 to the UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), there is a need to analyse thoroughly the complexity of the contexts in which peacekeepers are deployed today, the rules applicable to their engagement, and the modalities they can introduce to adapt to new realities. In this interview, the Review sought the opinion of a distinguished military commander and strategist on the future evolution of peacekeeping missions.
Lieutenant General Babacar Gaye has been the serving UN Military Adviser for Peacekeeping Operations and Head of the Office of Military Affairs for the past three years. He has exercised command responsibilities at all levels of the military hierarchy and has been among the privileged officers to lead the Senegalese military. Besides his participation in Operation Fode Kaba II in Gambia and the conduct of several campaigns in Casamance, Senegal, General Gaye has taken part in UN operations in Sinai, Lebanon, and Kuwait, where he commanded the Senegalese battalion during Operation Desert Storm. His experience also includes a tour of duty of more than five years in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as MONUC/MONUSCO Force Commander. Prior to that, he served as Ambassador of the Republic of Senegal to Germany, Austria, and the organs of the UN in Vienna. General Officer of the Armoured Cavalry branch, General Gaye is a graduate of the prestigious Saint-Cyr military academy and the Ecole Supérieure de Guerre of France.
This interview was conducted in New York on 9 April 2013 by Vincent Bernard, Editor-in-Chief of the International Review of the Red Cross, and Mariya Nikolova, Editorial Assistant.
1 Editor's note: see the Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations (commonly referred to as the ‘Brahimi Report’), UN Doc. A/55/305–S/2000/809, 21 August 2000.
2 Editor's note: see UNSC Res. S/RES/2098 (2013), 28 March 2013, para. 9 and ff.
3 Editor's note: a standby arrangements system combines homogenous groups of military means or capabilities working together towards the same operational objective, thus providing a more effective response to the inter-army nature of military operations.
4 Editor's note: for more information, see the United Nations Conduct and Discipline Unit's website: http://cdu.unlb.org/UNStandardsofConduct/CodeofConduct.aspx.
5 Editor's note: ADF-NALU is an acronym for the Allied Democratic Forces-National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (Forces Démocratiques Alliées–Armée Nationale de Libération de l'Ouganda), an armed group operating in the east of the DRC.
6 Editor's note: in 2011, the African Union Mission in Somalia's peacekeeping troops (composed of Ugandan and Burundian forces, among others) reportedly sustained heavy losses in a deadly confrontation against armed militants in Somalia. See Josh Kron and Mohamed Ibrahim, ‘African Union peacekeepers killed in Somalia battle’, in New York Times, 21 October 2011, available at: www.nytimes.com/2011/10/22/world/africa/african-union-takes-casualties-in-somalia-but-numbers-vary.html.