Andrew H Campbell Explains Why Peacekeeping Helps International Trade by Confronting Violence

Director of the International Peace and Leadership Institute Dr. Andrew H. Campbell of Bellevue, Nebraska is well-acquainted with the nature of United Nations Peacekeeping efforts. These peacekeepers are armed and tasked with taking steps to confront violence in force, if necessary.

Many claim that the presence of UN peacekeepers escalate the negative effects of violence rather than bringing peace to violent areas. Another critical concern is how a local economy reacts to peacekeeping efforts, thereby having an impact on world trade.

Experts from the Peace Dividend Trust performed a study on the “Economic Impact of Peacekeeping” and found:

There is an immediate upsurge in economic activity associated with the restoration of basic security and the spending from international staff allowances, local procurement and on national staff wages [thereby providing] a stimulus to the local economy.

UN leadership is well-aware of how violent responses by peacekeepers may slow down economic recoveries. However, data shows that peacekeepers nearly always decrease the level of violence in a community. They are becoming better trained to deescalate and prevent violence in their respective areas of operation.

Violence Threatens the Well-being of Citizens

Those initiating violence in a region immediately increase the risk of unnecessary fatalities. The death of innocent citizens in a nation halts any and all labor efforts and has a direct impact on the nation’s economy. In most cases, entrepreneurs and for-profit organizations must cease their activities and seek immediate safety.

Andrew H Campbell of Bellevue, NE states that violence within nations and regions often produces divisiveness. Particularly when the violence is either religiously or racially motivated, citizens feel the need to turn on one another due to the growing hysteria and/or survival instinct.

When citizens harm one another, valuable members of society face death or must leave their home, work, and businesses behind to find shelter.

Peacekeeper missions focus on bringing this kind of violence to end so that citizens may remain in their homes and go about their lives in peace. Additionally, peacekeepers provide the security necessary for displaced citizens to return home after periods of violence and instability.

Violence Threatens the Protection of Personal Property

In the wake of widespread violence in a region, many people lose their homes and valuables. It is not just small arms weapons that wreak havoc on these nations – explosives in the form of IEDs and land mines destroy (or threaten to destroy) entire towns.

Additionally, Dr. Andrew H Campbell of Bellevue, Nebraska has witnessed theft and vandalism frequently accompanying the violence. Because people have vacated their homes, it is easy pickings for looters to come through and take their valuables, making returning to normalcy even harder. Communities cannot hope to grow economically when personal property is in threat of destruction or theft. This severe lack of justice forces surviving families to horde what resources they have left.

Peacekeepers are able to help return law and order to regions racked by violence. Further, they have specially trained units to locate and remove explosives, including concealed IEDs and entire fields of land mines to help ensure the safety of the civilians of the region.

Violence Threatens an Overall Sense of Safety in Communities

According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, human beings unable to feel safe or have their basic physiological needs met cannot tap into their full potential. The mind needs food, shelter, and safety before it can begin to develop commerce.

Violence thus impacts an economy by halting overall productivity among a group of people that might otherwise contribute to international business and trade. They generally struggle to feel any sense of self-efficacy or to want to invest their time and money into profitable ventures.

As mentioned above, the lack of safety keeps members of society from collaborating affectively. Without that collaboration, the typical cooperative efforts that go into developing an economy is absent.

Peacekeepers don’t just confront the violence in a community. They also engage members of that community to believe in effective solutions. Peacekeeping missions focus a great deal on bringing good citizens together for creative problem solving. This includes relaunching local commerce and industry.

In Conclusion

As regions in turmoil settle from ongoing violence, education, production, and innovation naturally blossom. As local economies develop, other stable economies around the world will want to invest. Andrew H Campbell of Bellevue, NE concludes that in a global economy, it is often the developing nations that inspire global expansion among some of the largest economies in the world.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes.