UNU-CPR Senior Fellow and RMIT Professor of Global Security Charles Hunt unpacks the Secretary-General’s review on the future of all forms of UN peace operations, requested by Member States in the Pact for the Future.
Hunt discusses the review’s main recommendations: more political missions, a renewed emphasis on peacemaking, more networked, agile and adaptive operations, and greater attention to consent and cooperation from host countries. He argues that consent is not a binary condition but must be continually maintained across an “ecosystem” of actors, including civil society and local communities, and that compacts should be a process rather than a product.
Looking ahead, Hunt considers whether the era of large multidimensional missions has passed, while cautioning against treating it as a definitive end point. He calls on Member States and the next Secretary-General to treat the review as a floor, not a ceiling.
For more:
- At the Challenges Annual Forum 2026, Charles Hunt presented his research on host country consent in UN peace operations. Watch the recording on UN WebTV [starting at 1:25:19].
- Listen to Multilateralism Unpacked, Episode 12: The Future of UN Peace Operations, Part 1 – Peace Operations at an Inflection Point, which examines the financial and geopolitical pressures challenging the current model.
- Listen to Multilateralism Unpacked, Episode 14: The Future of UN Peace Operations, Part 2 – Peace Operations Under Pressure in South Sudan, which explores how financial cuts are affecting UN peace operations on the ground.
Listen to Multilateralism UNpacked on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and Podcast Index.
Watch the episode on YouTube.
