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date: 13 May 2021

Abstract and Keywords

This article focuses on the United Nations Aouzou Strip Observer Group (UNASOG), a peacekeeping mission deployed by the UN Security Council in 1994 to monitor the withdrawal of Libyan armed forces from the previously disputed territory of the Aouzou strip, between southern Libya and northern Chad. After providing an overview of the conflict between Libya and Chad, the article outlines UNASOG’s mandate and evaluates its operational achievements and limitations. While UNASOG has so far been the shortest, smallest (with the exception of DOMREP in 1965), and cheapest peacekeeping operation in the UN’s history, it nevertheless offers interesting lessons for small-scale observation missions. It represents a successful instance of confidence-building and verification that helped to implement a ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and marked the successful end of a border dispute that had been the cause of violent tensions, frequent skirmishes, and armed conflict between the two states.

Keywords: UNASOG, peacekeeping mission, observer mission, UN Security Council, Aouzou strip, Libya, Chad, United Nations, International Court of Justice

Hubertus Jürgenliemk

Hubertus Jürgenliemk, University of Cambridge

Joachim A. Koops

Joachim A. Koops is Research Professor and Senior Associate Researcher for European Foreign and Security Policy. He is also the Dean of Vesalius College, Vrije Universiteit Brussel as well as Course Director of the Executive Course in Global Risk Analysis and Crisis Management and the European Peace and Security Studies (EPSS) Programme.

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