The polis-keeper: re-signifying civil-military relations in United Nations missions.

Civil-military relations have become increasingly institutionalized in the context of UN peacekeeping operations. Nevertheless, attempts to strengthen the interface between military and humanitarian communities have been permeated by many conceptual and operational dilemmas. Analysts have raised a series of issues not only about the operational viability of promoting coherent civil-military relations, but also regarding the very proposition to forge any kind of identity between the two communities. Critics argue that the extensive militarization of humanitarian affairs and the integration of military and humanitarians are corrupting humanitarian principles and subordinating humanitarians to military logic/structures. The main argument is that civil-military relations reinforce hegemonic statecentric approaches over more solidarist, emancipatory and non-statist ones. This paper does not follow this position neither aims to retake the pluralism-solidarist debate. Instead, it proposes to articulate the engagement of peacekeepers in civilian protection from a normative and institutional perspective which gives room to problematize the state-centric logic guiding UN soldiers in peace missions. By framing peacekeepers as polis-keepers, the paper tries to understand civil-military relations in less clashing terms so as to respond to growing demands for a more open dialogue between military and humanitarians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]