The UN’s relationships with regional organisations are quickly becoming a key aspect of peacekeeping missions. These bodies are playing more assertive roles both politically and militarily, and the most prominent recent example is the United Nations – African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). In 2007, as a result of the threat to international peace and security from Darfur, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1769 authorising the deployment of the first-ever hybrid peacekeeping operation...
We live in an era of dramatic urban growth. Over half of the world’s population lives in urban areas and in the next 50 years this figure will increase to two thirds. Within the next 15 years, the majority of countries currently hosting peacekeeping missions will be largely urban....
‘UN peace operations need less jargon and more direction’ ran a headline in early April – just as we were testing a new version of our app, and just as we were posting a new blog in our peacekeeping series. It was virtual serendipity. The article asks if a new UN mission in Colombia should be designated a ‘peacekeeping operation’ or a ‘special political mission’. First, say the authors, it’s a question of image: as the former is generally associated with failed states. Then it’s a question of fu...
Conflicts are not only national or transnational, but above all local. This means that simply considering the international or national perspective in mission mandates will never be enough; policies have to be translated into concrete workable programmes at community level. So how can peacekeeping missions contribute to sustainable resolutions and prevent conflicts from reoccurring?...
Predicting the future is a minefield, but undoubtedly one of the toughest challenges for the new UN Secretary-General will be how to steer the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO). Not only because it is one of the most expensive activities of the system, but also because it needs to reconcile two of the core values of the UN: the maintenance of international peace and security, on the one hand, and human security, on the other....