阿依达，你往何处去？

One of the best questions raised when or after watching the movie is: why were those UN blue helmets looked so powerless?

Audiences must know that the blue helmets are not United Nations Forces, but Peacekeepers. There were only two experiences when UN formed forces to fight wars, Korea 1950 and Kuwait 1991. It means that UN is fighting against an enemy as a declared party of the conflict.

But UN peacekeeping mission is different. In such a mission, UN peacekeepers are not a party of the conflict, but a barrier segregating between the parties in conflict or between military power and endangered civilians. One of the top priorities and core rule of engagement is that the UN peacekeepers shall not become a party of the conflict fighting against a particular enemy. The peacekeepers face no enemy until a particular individual firing at them and technically the group which the individual belongs to is still not the enemy even by then.

The UN peacekeepers are under command of the United Nations who always being stuck in complicated procedure of authorization. That’s why the real problem solvers are superpowers, regional organizations and even former colonists. In the new century, the UN tried to change itself a little by authorizing two military interventions, Lybia and Coast Ivory, but the process of reform was cut and stopped by Syria. Where will the UN especially its declared function of protecting civilians go in future? Maybe we need more time and efforts than a good movie.