ABSTRACT
Between 1950 and 2010, UN peacekeeping expenditure does not present any continuous trend of increase or decrease, but show strong fluctuations and sudden increases. The peacekeeping budget has become significantly higher than the regular budget since 1992 (except in 1999). This shows the growing importance of these expenditures in the activities of the organization, thereby demonstrating the UN’s strong responsibility in the field of international security. Deceptively, this increase in responsibility is not sufficiently sustained with strong commitment from Member States. The ratio between peacekeeping expenditures and world military expenditures indicates nations’ relatively low commitment to peacekeeping. UN peacekeeping expenditures are already high, but it is important to realize that, even so, they do not reflect the totals costs of this activity. In particular, the support service costs are non-negligible direct costs. These costs are not sufficiently recognized by countries and, thus, are poorly funded. Yet, peacekeeping expenditures are non-discretionary costs. This chapter will review Green et al.’s (1998) model for predicting peacekeeping fiscal costs.
