Despite Appearances, the U.N. Peacekeeping System Is Doing All Right

Despite Appearances, the U.N. Peacekeeping System Is Doing All Right
Peacekeepers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon stand at attention during a ceremony at the mission headquarters, Naqoura, Lebanon, March 19, 2018 (AP Photo by Hassan Ammar).

Is it time to stop panicking about peacekeeping?

Discussions of United Nations peace operations are always tinged with a sense of crisis. Blue-helmet operations have been through a rough patch in recent years, struggling to stay on top of crises from the Central African Republic and South Sudan to the Golan Heights. As I noted last week, many experts fear that U.N. forces in trouble spots like Mali have stumbled into counterterrorist and stabilization missions that they cannot sustain. This is just one aspect of a broader malaise. The U.N. has endured a long series of revelations about indiscipline, corruption and cowardice among peacekeepers.

Next week, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will gather leaders on the margins of the General Assembly in New York to discuss how to fix this situation. He has been blunt about peacekeeping’s flaws. As a former U.N. refugee chief, he has seen blue-helmet missions up close. He does not seem to have been impressed. “Peacekeepers are often under-equipped, under-prepared and unready for the dangerous environments in which they now operate,” he told the Security Council in March.

Keep reading for free!

Get instant access to the rest of this article by submitting your email address below. You'll also get access to three articles of your choice each month and our free newsletter:

Or, Subscribe now to get full access.

Already a subscriber? Log in here .

What you’ll get with an All-Access subscription to World Politics Review:

A WPR subscription is like no other resource — it’s like having a personal curator and expert analyst of global affairs news. Subscribe now, and you’ll get:

  • Immediate and instant access to the full searchable library of tens of thousands of articles.
  • Daily articles with original analysis, written by leading topic experts, delivered to you every weekday.
  • Regular in-depth articles with deep dives into important issues and countries.
  • The Daily Review email, with our take on the day’s most important news, the latest WPR analysis, what’s on our radar, and more.
  • The Weekly Review email, with quick summaries of the week’s most important coverage, and what’s to come.
  • Completely ad-free reading.

And all of this is available to you when you subscribe today.