"Let Us Beat Swords into Plowshares" United Nations, New York (Photo by Soeung Sophat)Original report from Washington
12 March 2010
In recent years Cambodia has sent peacekeepers to three African countries. It is poised to host a major multi-national peacekeeping exercise later this year. And although Cambodia has not yet achieved all its goals, the author of a new book on peacekeeping says Cambodia’s experience was a success.
Mats Berdal is a professor of war studies at King’s College in London and the author of a new book about peace-building.
He warns that peacekeeping goals can often be over-ambitious. But he said in the case of Cambodia, peacekeepers brought many benefits that should not be overlooked.
“Cambodia perhaps doesn’t meet the standards of a mature liberal democracy, but it’s a very different place from what it used to be. It has a flourishing civil society, it has a free press, it has had elections.”
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