United Nations' Operations in Congo A Historical "Reading" of UN Security Council Resolutions

This article focuses on violent armed conflicts in the Congo and examines the United Nations' forms of military intervention. The article is organized in three main parts, in an attempt to first provide conceptual clarifications regarding the types and dynamics of UN interventions, and then to analyze the Cold War period (marked by UN's peacekeeping operation ONUC) and, finally the post-Cold War robust peacekeeping operations (MONUC and MONUSCO). The chief purpose in this article is the assessment of UN operations in Congo (discussed in terms of success, limited success, pitfalls, domestic and international complexities) and the methodology employed is based on historical description and interpretation. The main methodological instrument employed is document analysis, since a "reading" of UN Security Council Resolutions is meant to clarify the scopes and limits of UN operations.