Articles
The French Military Modernization at the End of Nicolas Sarkozy´s Presidency
Can the Goals of the White Paper on Defense Be Attained?
This article aims to assess the fulfilment of goals of the White Paper on Defense in the areas of financing of the French Armed Forces and modernization of their equipment under the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy. Three indicators for this assessment are defined: the military budget of the French Armed Forces, the acquisition of modern weapon systems and assorted equipment, and extraordinary revenues and expenses of the French defense budget. The article comes to the conclusion that almost from the beginning there were serious difficulties in attaining the projected goals of the White Paper on Defense. In addition, it is concluded that we can expect a reduction of original goals in the course of the ongoing revision of the White Paper on Defense.
On some aspects of the UN SC Mandate Application during the NATO Operation Unified Protector
The question of the compliance of the NATO operation Unified Protector with the international law has not become a key topic of scholarly debate yet. The prevailing attitude is such that NATO intervention was in accordance with the international law. Nevertheless, the article argues that NATO in Libya exceeded the UN Security Council mandate. Unified Protector was an operation conducted in the favour of one side, in this case, the rebels. NATO military engagement in Libya very much approached providing air support to Libyan rebelling groups in order to topple the regime. Furthermore, this conclusion is also confirmed by the fact that Western countries had provided military advisors and arms as well.
Conceptualization of UN Peacekeeping as an International Regime
It is widely recognized that UN peacekeeping operations are an undertheorized topic. In this respect, scholars call to devote more attention to the incorporation of the study of UN peacekeeping operations into the framework of international relations theories. The article responds to these calls and suggests conceptualizing UN peacekeeping as an international regime. Some authors have already referred to UN peacekeeping as an international regime, however, the references have been rather fragmentary and there is no detailed identification of individual dimensions of this regime. The article uses the conception of Stephen Krasner who defines regimes as “principles, norms, rules, and decision-making procedures around which actors’ expectations converge in a given area of international relations” to carefully identify and characterize the dimensions of the UN peacekeeping regime. The conceptualization of UN peacekeeping as an international regime is understood as a first and necessary step to opening new ground to the theoretical study of UN peacekeeping operations within the regime analysis.