The BMIL is where combatants can meet in a neutral environment and have honest communications to drive down into, analyze, and mitigate, the root cause of conflicts. Creating a safe space for mutual trust to develop, and where people can learn to trust one another through intellectual honesty and management transparency, can inspire new levels of trust between combatants by addressing core issues while considering a wider array of alternative solutions in order to resolve global conflicts.
As Dr. Mathew Ayawine points out in his exemplary research, peacekeeping is one of the major mediums that the United Nations uses in the resolution of armed conflicts across the world, both intra-state and inter-state. The armed forces of many member states have been deployed to United Nations peacekeeping missions to halt hostilities between hostile parties in armed conflicts in order to create the necessary atmosphere for peaceful resolution of conflicts. The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has been a key participant in United Nations peacekeeping operations since 1960 when the first peacekeeping battalion was deployed in the Congo. Dr. Ayawine is not just a academic subject matter expert on peacekeeping, but also has practical, boots on the ground experience with the GAF supporting peacekeeping mission, including those in South Sudan.
Research shows United Nations peacekeeping affects participating militaries in a variety of ways. First, there is a disjoint between peacekeeping and combat operations. The major finding is United Nations peacekeeping operations adversely affect the combat disposition of the Armed Forces. The research identified lack of realistic combat training, absence of combat hardware as well as waning of personnel’s mental disposition as major areas affected by United Nations peacekeeping operations which contribute to a decline in the combat disposition of the Armed Forces. The research recommended that the Armed Forces should make realistic combat training a priority.
Dr. Mathew Ayawine