New study offers future vision for UN peacekeeping
An independent study has outlined what future models of UN peacekeeping are needed to address new and evolving global threats.
The study, commissioned by the UN’s Department of Peace Operations, is intended to inform a ministerial meeting in May next year in Berlin on the future of peacekeeping.
The report found that UN peacekeeping remains an “effective multilateral tool for preventing and limiting armed conflict, sustaining peace, as well as responding to a broader range of threats to international peace and security”.
But it does recognise that “fresh thinking” is needed about what roles peacekeeping can and should play.
It acknowledges a backdrop of intensifying geopolitical competition and diverging perspectives on global issues that are dividing the Security Council, as well as the growing financial pressures that demand more from already overstretched missions.
New thinking is especially necessary as UN field missions “have recently encountered a worrying degree of political resistance and a trust deficit among some governments [and] local populations”, the study says. It also notes that a “capability-expectations gap” has contributed to a growing cynicism over what UN peacekeeping can achieve.
Much of those concerns are reflected in a series of ongoing reports by The New Humanitarian exploring the changing face of peacekeeping in today’s complex, multipolar world. It includes on-the-ground reporting from eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where departing peacekeepers have left a trail of abuse and anger; the tragedy of Congolese women with peacekeeper-fathered children who are calling for recognition and support; and an overview of what’s gone wrong with traditional UN peacekeeping – and how regional approaches are increasingly being tried.
