ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that any assessment of the UN's role and performance in support of international state- and peacebuilding efforts after the Cold War requires an appreciation of the inevitable tensions that flow from it. It focuses on the ways in which the distinctive features of the organisation – especially those that flow from its intergovernmental, functionally fragmented and intensely political character – have affected, and will continue to do so, its role in international statebuilding. The chapter examines one of those roles in greater detail: its ability to confer international legitimacy both on the actions of statebuilders themselves and on the structures and institutions of government that are being built up. It also examines how the capacities, tools and resources available to the UN for statebuilding have evolved since the early 1990s. While these are impressive in many respects, their development and utilisation remain subject to intergovernmental politics and constraints.
