Resumen de The future support of the Armed Forces in peacekeeping operations
The world we know does not stop its political, social, and economic transformation with the emergence of increasingly diverse and unfathomable conflicts. Human nature itself does not stop its population growth; therefore, needs will be greater, that is to say there will be more demands to satisfy them that cannot be properly attended, and a greater number of dissatisfied human beings that face multiple shortages. This salient fact constitues in and of itself a new source of conflicts between those who want resources and those who possess them.
Likewise, this glogal demographic expansion will not be accompanied by greater food production on a large scale, or by natural resources to support this growth.
On the other hand, the Armed Forces of the Americas see their main historical role, the Defense of sovereignty and maintenance of the territorial integrity, increasingly questioned for several reasons, one of them being the detemination inside the Hemisphere to resolve disputes through peaceful ways, as well as the fact that there are no serious conflicts that require their active participation, or to play their main role.
In addition, as mentioned above and in relation to the advance of threats of a multidimensional nature, there is a moderate tendency in the Hemisphere to reduce the number of armed forces personnel or cutdefense budgets.
Internal demands of the states, in terms of health, education, security, inter alia, generate greater dilemmas for political officials; they must decide between the allocation of resources for defense or to meet the aforementioned demands. Moreover, the armed forces have as secondary role to support the community in health issues, disasters, road construction, among other tasks; in addition to these secondary roles, they support other states, and regional, hemispheric or international organizations in peacekeeping operations.
Although there are many questions to be answered in this context, this paper will analyse whether the States of the Hemisphere can support the growing demands they receive to participate in peacekeeping operations with their armed forces.
