Uganda, a close ally of the United States, was the first country to commit peacekeeping troops for the African Union's mission in Somalia, and without its military support the government would probably fall.
"India is completely committed to peacekeeping provided peacekeeping is what we know it to be," said India's ambassador to the UN, Asoke Kumar Mukerji.
While General Powell gave his name to a doctrine that would never have America go to war short of vital national interests and only with overwhelming force at the ready, General Shalikashvili was more flexible in committing United States forces to peacekeeping operations.
First, it rallied proponents for action: Russia helped fly in French troops, and China has committed its largest peacekeeping force yet to the U.N. mission that will soon be dispatched.
NATO, it was argued, was becoming more of an amorphous collective security club, rather than a tight collective defence alliance, with its forces now committed to leading peacekeeping coalitions in the Balkans rather than defence of its members' territory.
While some American allies have committed to sending peacekeeping troops to Iraq in coming months, Mr. Rumsfeld appeared eager to dispel the idea that order could only be restored if the United States forces were supplemented by large numbers of allied soldiers.
Both countries are currently committing biggish contingents to the peacekeeping force that is assembling in south Lebanon to prevent more fighting between Hizbullah and Israel.
There are obviously lots of very good reasons against committing Canadian soldiers to a peacekeeping mission at this moment in time.
There, between the options of committing overwhelming force and of doing nothing, the United States and other members of the United Nations Security Council chose what peacekeeping experts describe as a half-baked middle ground.
JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- Rwanda has threatened to withdraw its troops from peacekeeping operations for the United Nations if it publishes a report accusing the Rwandan Army of committing genocide in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1990s, Rwanda's foreign minister said in a letter sent to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
In early August Amnesty International, a British human-rights group, said that all sides were committing atrocities, and released video footage of what appear to be soldiers slitting the throats of detainees.The army's poor showing also bodes ill for efforts to strengthen Africa's own peacekeeping.
