As part of a series exploring the future of UN peacekeeping, Adam Day writes in IPI Global Observatory that UN peacekeeping may appear poised for a major shift in the near future. Rather than ask whether peacekeeping has a future, however, we should be asking how peace operations could shape the future of conflict prevention, he argues.
United Nations peacekeeping may appear poised for a major shift in the near future. Over the past five years, there has been a steady decline in the number of peacekeepers deployed worldwide, while two of the UN’s largest peace operation—in Darfur and the Democratic Republic of the Congo—look set to wind down in the coming years. Facing continuing downward pressure on the UN peacekeeping budget, a deeply divided Security Council, and a strongly contested track record, some experts have argued there will be little appetite for large missions in the coming period, possibly heralding the end of the era of large multidimensional peacekeeping.
