After all, peacekeeping was, and should be, one of the principal concerns of the United Nations. The NATO operations and, subsequently, the EU Rapid Reaction Force gave rise to other question marks too.įor one thing, they put the United Nations’ role in peacekeeping into a gray area.

In others they came into operation so late that the world was left wondering as to their efficacy. In some instances they have failed miserably to prevent the worst.

What did interest one, though, was what role, if any, might have been envisaged for the Force in international peacekeeping operations.īy hindsight, such operations have at best been a mixed blessing. It is a bit late to delve into the merits or demerits of the EU decision. On the other hand it was generally recognized at the time as to how long would the European Union be content to confine its foreign policy instruments to an America–dominated alliance. The Americans were worried, and justifiably so, that the decision to set up the EU Rapid Reaction Force would pose a threat to NATO primacy in the field of collective defense. The European Union had been squirming for quite some time to acquire some freedom of maneuver for itself.Īfter some notable successes in the economic field, defense was but the logical next step. The end of the Cold War was bound to have repercussions of some sort. The decision went against the America’s long held assumption that they (USA that is) should have the decisive say in matters concerned with – among other things – the defense of Europe. Having officiated at the birth of NATO and being one of its recognized godfathers, the Americans too looked askance at this decision of the EU. When the European Union had taken the decision to set up the EU Rapid Reaction Force, it had raised several eyebrows among the International Affairs buffs. While the Warsaw Pact died a natural death, NATO was left in a wilderness of sorts. Then it came to pass that all of a sudden the Cold War came to an end. The era of the Cold War, when the Warsaw Pact and NATO arrogated unto themselves the powers that should best have been vested in the United Nations, is a case in point.

Look over the shoulder