Peacekeeping, as we imagine it, is under threat. As we witness the decline of the rules based international order, this system to ensure peace and stability after conflicts is under threat from all sides. But the inherently political nature of peacekeeping threatens to undermine this vital process. Flemming Splidsboel Hansen argues that as Russia sends mercenary forces into Africa under the guise of 'peacekeeping', we need to define the idea before it just becomes a friendlier synonym for war.

As Russian troops were already revving up the engines to launch their unprovoked and illegal aggression against Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued an order for the Russian military to prepare so-called peacekeepers to move across the border. A few days later, the speaker of the Russian Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, insisted on upholding the political charade initiated by the Kremlin by urging Russians to support “our soldiers and officers, who take part in the peacekeeping operation”. By then, Russian troops had fired barrage after barrage of missiles against targets, including civilian, across Ukraine, and their first war crimes on Ukrainian soil had already been recorded.

___

“When troops of one country enter the territory of another country without its consent, they are not impartial peacekeepers. They are not peacekeepers at all”

___