Could It, Would It Be? All forms of military peacekeeping are quintessential interventions of the world’s nation-state system, and by definition none could therefore qualify as a commons activity, even if its aims were entirely humanitarian. Such actions produce public, not commons goods. Even unarmed civilian peacekeeping, the way it is currently carried out by a few dozen NGOs worldwide, cannot be regarded as a commons activity, although it has some features consistent with commons practice and values.

The way I see it is that unarmed civilian peacekeeping could progress in stages: first as an emancipation from the still-dominant military peacekeeping model producing a public good, but still within the context of the sovereign state-system, thereafter evolving into a partial and finally a full commons, with a whole new set of active players and rules of the game. This development could happen as part of the evolution towards a commons-based society altogether, or in some situations perhaps even ahead of it. What I will consider now are the implications and requirements for this more developed variant of unarmed civilian peacekeeping to become a commons. In many ways that ideal may seem far off in the future, but since it offers innovative and urgently needed solutions to some intractable problems, its potential may suddenly be realized, like an epistemic break.

This article can be found in the Fall | Winter 2011 issue of Kosmos Journal. To read the entire article as a PDF, please download by clicking the link below.

Peacekeeping as a Commons Activity