» SEE ALL ISSUES » Vol.7, n.1 (May-October 2016)

THE USE OF MILITARY FORCE IN THE MANAGEMENT AND CONFLICT RESOLUTION

Degree in Military Sciences (Infantry) at the Military Academy, currently performs military advisory functions, Office of the Minister of National Defence, in the 21st Constitutional Government (Portugal). He served in various units of the armed forces, where he played roles in the operational components of peace support operations in Kosovo, 1999-2000 and 2005; evacuation of nationals in Guinea and Congo (1998), and vocational education and training. He was a professor at the Institute of Military Higher Studies in education of operation areas, performing advisory functions and training in Angola (2008-9) and Mozambique (2009). He served as Operations Officer and Trainer of Intervention Brigades (after 2010, Coimbra), being appointed Commander of the 1st Infantry Battalion of the Intervention Brigade (2012). He was an advisor in the Office of the Minister of National Defence in the nineteenth and twentieth Constitutional Governments. Master's in Peace and War Studies in New International Relations, Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa, and is qualified through the course of Information and Security Specialisation (Institute of Social Sciences and Politics) and the course Operations of Peace and Humanitarian Action, taking part in the International Visitor Leadership Programme in the United States, in the area of conflict resolution. He is the author of Resolução de conflitos – o papel do emprego do instrumento militar and co-author of A luta armada timorense na resistência à ocupação 1975-1999. He is a doctoral candidate in International Relations at the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences from the Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

PDF HTML

Resumo

The end of the Cold War changed the paradigm of the role and scope of military force in the management and resolution of conflicts. With increasing intervention by the international community, the new generation of peacekeeping operations has adopted a multidimensional approach to military force to be used in coordination with other instruments of power, ensuring a proper strategic framework considering the desired end state. This new approach and the increasing complexity of conflicts, predominantly intrastate in nature, have led on the one hand to understandings of the traditional principles of peace operations being addressed, and on the other to military forces facing diverse challenges. The most complex is related to the effective use of combat capabilities, as it seems that there is a lack of political will, after making the deployment of forces, to ensure their effective use. However, the effective use of force being the most critical element, but simultaneously more differentiating and characterising of the use of the military instrument, the management and resolution of conflicts has elevated the range of capabilities of military forces that goes beyond traditional capabilities combat, showing themselves useful in support, complement or replacement of non-military capabilities.

O fim da guerra fria alterou o paradigma no que respeita ao papel e âmbito de aplicação da força militar na gestão e na resolução de conflitos. Com um intervencionismo crescente da comunidade internacional, a nova geração de operações de paz adotou uma abordagem multidimensional com a força militar a ser empregue de forma articulada com os restantes instrumentos do Poder, garantindo-se o devido enquadramento estratégico face ao estado final desejado. Esta nova abordagem e a crescente complexidade conflitos, predominantemente de natureza intraestatal, têm levado, por um lado, a que o entendimento dos tradicionais princípios das operações de paz esteja a ser equacionado, e por outro, a que as forças militares enfrentem diversos desafios. O mais complexo prende-se com o emprego efetivo das suas capacidades de combate, pois parece faltar vontade política para, depois de se efetuar o deployment das forças, garantir o seu emprego efetivo. No entanto, sendo o emprego efetivo da força o elemento mais crítico, mas simultaneamente mais diferenciador e caraterizador do emprego do instrumento militar, na gestão e na resolução de conflitos, assumiram relevo um elevado leque de capacidades das forças militares que, ultrapassando as tradicionais capacidades de combate, se mostram de grande utilidade, nomeadamente em apoio, complemento ou mesmo substituição de capacidades não militares.

Palavras-chave

Conflict resolutionInstruments of powerMilitary forcePeace operations

Força militarinstrumentos do Poderoperações de pazResolução de conflitos

Como citar este artigo

Oliveira, António (2016). “The use of military force in the management and resolution of conflicts.” JANUS.NET e-journal of International Relations, Vol. 7, Nº. 1, May-October 2016. Consulted [online] on the date of last visit, http://hdl.handle.net/11144/2621

Article received on 8 February, 2016 and accepted for publication on 13 March, 2016