Unarmed Peacekeeping: A Brief History There is a long but little known history of attempted unarmed interpositionary peacekeeping of which the Gulf Peace Team is the latest example. Some of the earlier international efforts are outlined below. Interposition is defined as 'the physical act of placing a "buffer" force between two opposing armed forces in order to prevent an outbreak or renewed fighting among those forces'. [Harbottle, M. (ed). The Peacemaker's Handbook. New York: International Peace Academy, 1978. p. V/20.] Maude Royden's Peace Army On 25 February 1932, a famous letter by Dr. Maude Royden (a friend of Gandhi's), the Rev. H.R.L. Sheppard and Dr. Herbert Gray appeared in the London Daily Express calling for volunteers for a 'Peace Army' that would throw itself between the warring Chinese and Japanese forces in the city of Shanghai. The force was offered to an unresponsive League of Nations but eventually the cessation of hostilities in China made it redundant. Although attempts were made over the next eight or so years to resurrect the Peace Army (in slightly less ambitious forms), and a book was published [Brinton, H. The Peace Army London: Williams and Norgate, 1932.], the idea eventually faded. World Peace Brigade In 1962 the WPB established a training centre in Dar es Salaam, Tanganyika from where it offered to mobilise thousands of marchers in an international Freedom March that would cross the Tanganyikan border into Northern Rhodesia if progress on the latter's Independence was not made. The March was intended to dramatise the Zambian political situation to the world, to provide a useful example of the value of nonviolent action to militant Africans, and to undertake such constructive projects as organising house construction and sanitation teams to work in the border areas devastated by units under the control of the white Government. The March proved unnecessary when, following heavily boycotted elections, Britain proposed new constitutional provisions which Kaunda accepted. India-China Border War In 1962, prominent Gandhian leader Jayaprakash Narayan proposed to lead a contingent of the Shanti Sena (Gandhian peace army volunteers) between the warring armies of China and India. This provoked heated debate within Gandhian circles and the Chinese unilaterally withdrew their forces before the pro-interposition members of the Shanti Sena could act. Northern Ireland Peace Force In 1971 the Fellowship of Reconciliation put forward a proposal to 'explore the need for, and the feasibility of, a fully trained, disciplined and maintained corps for non-violent action in Northern Ireland'.[Peace News. 10 September 1971.] UN And Government Proposals There have been many attempts to interest the United Nations in the concept of unarmed interpositionary peacekeeping; the de Madariaga-Narayan proposals of 1960 and, more recently, Ray Magee's 'Peaceworkers' are good examples. Calls have also come from government circles. With the growing tension preceding the Suez crisis in 1956, British MP Henry Usborne wrote to the 'Manchester Guardian' urging that the UN recruit a volunteer corps of 10,000 unarmed people to patrol and hold a two kilometre-wide demilitarised zone close to the Egyptian-Israeli border. Usborne suggested that this 'peace force' should be 'equipped only for passive resistance and designed to ensure that the present border is not violated by force. Its tactics would be essentially those of satyagraha [nonviolent action]'. In 1958 former MP Sir Richard Acland suggested that Britain take the initiative in setting up a world police force that would eventually be adopted by the UN. It was envisaged that an unarmed component of the force would parachute into trouble spots. [Acland, Richard. Waging Peace: The Positive Policy We Could Pursue if we Gave up the H-Bomb. London: Frederick Muller, 1958.] World Peace Army Others have deliberately steered clear of governments and international bodies which they see as the agents responsible for war. One recent and shortlived attempt was the World Peace Army founded by New York Quakers in 1981. Peace Brigades International Formed in 1981, the PBI took the form of 'a specialised agency dedicated to unarmed peacekeeping and peacemaking'. Their main function during the past decade has been to provide escorts to human rights activists in Central America. Summary It is clear that past attempts at unarmed international peacekeeping have had an underlying philosophical perspective - a commitment to nonviolence. However, all of the major initiatives have been stalled at the proposal stage primarily because of a lack of money and the absence of international organizational and logistical support. How do we establish and develop the network and infrastructure to ensure that we build on the efforts of the Gulf Peace Team? Thomas Weber and Robert J. Burrowes