Realism & UN Peacekeeping Corruption

In January 2006 the United Nations set up a Procurement Task Force to investigate several alleged crimes involving UN peacekeeping missions. The original crimes intended to be investigated included fraud, bribery, bid-rigging and money laundering. There have been allegations of corruption pertaining to operations all around the world. The charges concerning Indian and Pakistani troops in the Congo are especially interesting. Troops from both countries are suspected of involvement in arming the FNI militia, which is known for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, in exchange for drugs, ivory, and gold. Indian peacekeepers supposedly had direct contact with the militia responsible for the Rwandan genocide. There are also suspicions of widespread sexual abuse.

It’s only individuals that have been punished. I sort of understand this. Maybe it’s just a few individuals that deserve the blame. But normally that’s not the case. When big corporations are involved in scandals they choose three or four minor players to take the blame for everyone when in reality it was the important guys – the VP, the CEO, etc. – who are really at fault. It’s hard to get away with a lot of these crimes and I just don’t know if I believe that only a few individuals participated in the crimes. But, of course, it’s very unlikely that the UN would go after entire countries. It won’t dismiss or suspend Pakistan or India, no matter how many of their troops were involved. In fact, it appears as though the UN may have tried to cover up the allegations. Investigators were called off the case. The UN claims it was because there simply wasn’t enough evidence so the allegations were probably false and not worth looking into. But a UN insider told the BBC that he was told they shouldn’t investigate because Pakistan was too valuable an asset, given the size of its military contribution to the peacekeeping forces. The UN would rather not discover misdealing so that it won’t have to punish Pakistan. But now that the corrupt conduct is out in the open, do you think the UN will feel pressured to punish Pakistan? Probably not. Not only does this show that it’s all about power, but it also goes back to the realist idea that even if we bind states to institutions, the institutions will still have little or no power over the states. To further illustrate this point, countries are crying out against this Task Force and it is expected to be done away with soon, making it even easier for countries to get away with misconduct entirely unchecked by any authority.