Abstract
Why did the international community decide to withdraw United Nations peacekeeping troops from Rwanda during the 1994 genocide? Analysis of newly released documents and results from an international conference with former U.N. and government officials sheds further light on our understanding of what took place leading up to and during the Rwandan genocide. This article focuses on two key moments: 1) the United States’ reluctance to support the peacekeeping mission from before its mandate began and prior to the killing of U.S. troops in Somalia in autumn 1993; and the United States’ central role pushing the United Nations Security Council to call for a withdrawal of UNAMIR. It provides a greater understanding of international decision making in the U.N. security council, as well as foreign policy making within the U.S. government, contributing to more effective genocide prevention policy and advocacy efforts.
Acknowledgements
The author thanks Tom Blanton of the National Security Archive for his leadership on the "International Decision-Making in the Age of Genocide: Rwanda 1990-1994" project. The author thanks Angelina Godoy at the University of Washington for her support and feedback in the writing of this paper.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5038/1911-9933.12.3.1611
Recommended Citation
Willard, Emily A.
(2018)
"New Documents Shed Light: Why Did Peacekeepers Withdraw during Rwanda’s 1994 Genocide?,"
Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal:
Vol. 12:
Iss.
3:
143-162.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5038/1911-9933.12.3.1611
Available at: https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/gsp/vol12/iss3/14
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