ABSTRACT
UN peacekeeping is in crisis. Immediate challenges in the field (including continuing conflicts and increased authoritarianism in host states) and at UN Headquarters (a deeply divided Security Council and ongoing contestations over power and burden-sharing in peacekeeping) have eroded key background institutions anchoring UN peacekeeping: confidence in peacekeeping as a conflict management tool, agreement on the nature of UN peacekeeping, and a shared understanding of peacekeeping as a central and prestigious UN activity. These eroding background institutions further undermine UN peacekeeping’s foreground institutions. At UN Headquarters, the political coalition advocating for peacekeeping in key decision-making bodies is weakening. In the field, peacekeeping operations face local legitimacy crises, staff demoralisation, and alienation from other UN agencies. Drawing on their combined experience in the policy, practice, and research of UN peacekeeping, the authors of this chapter propose a new modular approach to UN peacekeeping operations that institutionalises UN funds and programmes as crucial implementing partners for missions’ peacebuilding tasks. The approach recognises the crucial but temporary role of peacekeeping operations, leverages expertise across the UN system, and builds peacebuilding capacity beyond a mission’s time horizon. It is supported by consolidated financial and, ideally, logistical support. The authors argue that this shift to the foreground institutions of UN peacekeeping can also shore up critical background institutions, addressing the crises of credibility, confidence, and commitment UN peacekeeping faces at Headquarters and in the field.
