Tomasz Andrykowski 8.1 (P2)

Effects of War & Conflict

Peace Keeping:

The role of the peace keepers is to ensure safety and to protect the vulnerable civilians from further attacks or dangers. They will be deployed to help the community to rebuild their lost buildings like schools, hospitals, houses as well as to ensure their safety. Although the peace keepers are supposed to go into another country to ensure the safety of others they run the risk of being involved in direct military combat because they are soldiers on someone else’s land. The peace keepers will be deployed on command of UN or NATO when ceasefire is in place but it’s still not safe enough in the country for other people. An example where the peacekeeping force was sent from UK to help would be the Kosovo War or the Bosnia War.

Training:

Since the British army is one of the best in the world, we will send out our soldiers to other countries to provide trainingfor the benefit of both sides. If our soldiers train the armed forces in other countries it will benefit the other country because then they will have a strong army or police force which will make it easier for them to defend themselves from any dangers for example from other countries attacking them. It also helps our country as then when a war occurs in that country it is not necessary for our soldiers to be deployed to go out and defend their country as now after the training their army is strong enough to protect their country. Although it is very rewarding it is still very risky think to do as our soldiers are on someone else’s territory and they might get hurt for this therefore it is very risky as we put our soldiers in danger of getting injured. When we send out our soldiers to other countries to train them then we have fewer armed forces in our country which makes us more vulnerable to attacks from other countries. British armed forces are a large part in training of the Iraqi civilian forces and the Afghan forces.

Disaster Relief:

When a major disaster happens like the disaster in Haiti in 2010 then our military forces will be sent to help them rebuild houses, hospitals, schools and to give overall help to try and restore the normality, we will try to rescue all the injured people and move them into hospitals as well as help to clean up the area which will be a mess after a major disaster. Some of the soldiers that will go out to help people after a disaster they might suffer from PTSD later on in their lives when they come back which could lead to loads of problems for them later on in their lives, this would be caused by all the things they could see in there. This could also lead to many health problems for our soldiers as they might be affected by contamination from the disaster. An example of UK armed force helping in other countries after a major disaster would be the Asian Tsunami 2004, US Hurricane Katrina 2006, Haiti 2010.

Evacuation of UK Nationals:

If there is a civil war or major problem in a country then the British government will need to evacuate the UK nationals from this country. The UK government will need to ensure the safety of the UK nationals as although they do not live in UK anymore they are still a responsibility of the British government as they are still British. The forces will be sent to that country to ensure the safety of the UK nationals or if it is still not safe for them to stay there then they will be evacuated back into UK to ensure their full safety. Although the British soldiers go there to ensure safety without fighting it might be sometimes necessary for direct combat to fully protect and evacuate the people. An example could be the Libyan War or the Egypt and Tunisian’s Revolution.

Refugee Seeking Asylum in UK:

There are many different reasons for the people from other countries seeking asylum in the UK. Although it is very good for us to help other people to find an asylum in UK it leads to loads of problems as well. Large flow of refugees can have a massive impact on the UK government as well as on all services personnel because the British government provides free health care for them from the NHS which will strain the whole system as then there is less time from the doctors for the British citizens. There are various reasons for the refugees to come into this country for example there might be a war in their country putting them and their family in danger of getting injured or even losing their life so it is very important that we welcome them into our country and provide them with our health services. The services cost a lot which will put a high cost on the whole government.

Involvement of War Crimes:

All the military forces have to conform with all the relevant legislations when they are fighting in other countries for example all the soldiers have to follow the Geneva Convention. This is very complex and long term impact. This might involve different things in war crimes for example genocides, massacres, systematic rape or even disappearances which are brought to light by survivors of those situations or by the peace keepers. If an army of some country would do any of those war crimes and then the truth would come out by the survivors or the peacekeepers then the countries army might be put in a bad light and can lose the respect and credibility from other countries globally.

Direct Military Combat:

Direct military combat has many bad effects. The soldiers when they come back home after being involved in a war, they could be very nervous because they have seen many things which they would not probably see if they wouldn’t be involved in the war. They might have seen their friends, colleagues or civilians getting badly injured or even killed. These images will stay in the soldier’s heads forever and these could lead to many problems associated with the PTSD for example this could lead them to drugs, alcohol, depression or even suicide. This is a very big problem as it leads to loads of problems like a permanent injuries or loss of life. The soldiers might also be very weak as they might have been exposure to chemical and biological agents. This is very big problems as when the army will need them to come back into the army they will not be ready to come back as they will be too weak to do so which will affect the power of the British army.