Canada and Missions for Peace: Lessons from Nicaragua, Cambodia, and Somalia

The end of the Cold War was to usher in a new era of international peace and security. Instead, new types of conflicts have emerged and the international community has had to react quickly. New threats to peace have been countered with varying doses of peacemaking, peacekeeping, and, today, peacebuilding. This newest approach — peacebuilding — recognizes that the sources of violent conflict are complex and that human security and international stability will only be achieved by integrating political, military, and development efforts.

Canada and Missions for Peace explores Canada's involvement in recent international efforts to resolve violent conflicts in Nicaragua, Cambodia, and Somalia. It examines the complex interface between foreign policy, international security, and international development. In doing so, this book joins the ever-growing body of scholarship on the new peacebuilding agenda, offering a unique vantage point:

• It focuses on the motivations, dynamics, and impacts of Canadian foreign policy;
• It situates the Canadian effort within three very different and complex conflicts: Nicaragua, Cambodia, and Somalia; and
• It provides sobering insight and useful recommendations to guide future policy and programing in peacebuilding.

Perhaps it is too early to tell if a concern for international security can be combined with a concern for human security and well-being to form a new peacebuilding "architecture." The lessons and insight contained in Canada and Missions for Peace, however, will bring this vision into clearer focus.

The editors

Gregory Wirick worked for the Parliamentary Centre from 1982 until his untimely death in 1998. Previous to 1982, Mr Wirick was Executive Director of the United Nations Association in Canada, where he instituted the Pearson Peace Medal, the Association's highest honour. Gregory Wirick was a champion of peace and an innovator in the emerging field peacebuilding.

Robert Miller is Director of the Parliamentary Centre in Ottawa, Canada, where he has championed parliamentary-strengthening programs in Southern Africa and Southeast Asia. Mr Miller has led numerous studies and published widely in the areas of foreign policy, international development, peacebuilding, human rights, and democratic development.