REGIONAL PARTNERS FOR UN - PROSPECTS FOR BURDEN-SHARING

The article departs from the general assumption that many of the advan tages of the regional organisations are perceptional or even hypotheti cal while the disadvantages are real and structural. Accordingly, ther e is no substitute for the UN peacekeeping and the policy of burden-sh aring with regional partners could be successful only in some exceptio nal cases. Exploring some European perspectives, the author examines t he achievements and failures of NATO and the EU in Bosnia, the OSCE - in Nagorno Karabakh, and the CIS - in the Caucasus. The conclusion is that the UN retreat to the traditional ''first-generation'' peacekeepi ng is inevitable, but burden-sharing with regional organisations while in some cases desirable, by and large is not necessary in this field. As for the ''muscle'' peacekeeping activities, they would most probab ly become a domain of a few regional powers acting alone or building a d hoc coalitions.