Predict and prevent: overcoming early warning implementation challenges in UN peace operations

The UN has made progress in the adoption of new technologies to predict and prevent local violence. To maintain the momentum, it needs to continue to innovate to be able to serve people in need faster, better, and more efficiently. The UN will need to find a way to analyse the enormous amount of data...

United Nations peace operations and International Relations theory: An introduction

FNs fredsoperasjoner har gjennomgått mange endringer i sin tredveårige eksistens. Multidimensjonale fredsoperasjoner har organisert valg, bidratt til levering av humanitær bistand, rådgitt militær- og politireform og kjempet mot rebellgrupper. Fredsoperasjoner representerer ikke bare en sentral pillar...

Doing Less With More? The Difficult ‘Return’ of Western Troop Contributing Countries to United Nations Peacekeeping

FNs fredsbevarende operasjon i Mali - MINUSMA - har av mange forskere blitt beskrevet som 'retur' av vestlige troppebidragsytere til FNs fredsbevarende operasjoner i Afrika. Denne rapporten tar for seg hvorvidt det faktisk kan beskrives som en 'retur' og om disse styrkene har klart...

Assessing the Effectiveness of the United Nations Mission in Mali

Until 2016 MINUSMA managed to strengthen stability in northern Mali, decreasing the number of civilians killed in the conflict, and allowing large numbers of displaced persons to return home. MINUSMA also assisted the peace process, culminating in the 2015 Algiers Agreement. Many of these achievements...

United Nations Stabilization Operations: Chapter Seven and a Half

The UN Security Council has in recent years included the term ‘stabilization’ in the name of the operations deployed to Haiti, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali and Central African Republic. But, are they stabilization operations? Although the concept has become increasingly popular in the UN context,...

Assessing the Effectiveness of the United Nations Mission in Mali (MINUSMA)

This report assesses the extent to which the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) is achieving its current strategic objectives, and the impact the Mission has had on the political and security situation in Mali. Until 2016 MINUSMA managed to strengthen stability in...

Norms and Practices in UN Peacekeeping: Evolution and Contestation

The four articles in this special section focus on norms in UN peacekeeping (gender, impartiality, human rights, and environmentalism) and how they are implemented in practice. They look at the evolution of these norms over time; take an explicit theoretical perspective (feminist institutionalism, norm...

For the greater good?: “Good states” turning UN peacekeeping towards counterterrorism

The usual suspects of middle power internationalism—small and middle powers such as Canada, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, and Sweden—have all contributed to the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali (MINUSMA). This article argues that while these and other Western countries’ contributions to MINUSMA may...

Predictive Peacekeeping: Strengthening Predictive Analysis in UN Peace Operations

The UN is becoming increasingly data-driven. Until recently, data-driven initiatives have mainly been led by individual UN field missions, but with António Guterres, the new Secretary-General, a more centralized approach is being embarked on. With a trend towards the use of data to support the work of...

Conclusion: Military rapid response—from institutional investment to ad hoc solutions

The track record of military rapid response mechanisms, troops on standby, ready to be deployed to a crisis within a short time frame by intergovernmental organizations, remains disappointing. Yet, many of the obstacles to multinational actors launching a rapid and effective military response in times...

Tangled up in glue: Multilateral crisis responses in Mali

The track record of military rapid response mechanisms, troops on standby, ready to be deployed to a crisis within a short time frame by intergovernmental organizations, remains disappointing. Yet, many of the obstacles to multinational actors launching a rapid and effective military response in times...

Introduction: Rapid response mechanisms—strengthening defense cooperation and saving strangers?

The track record of military rapid response mechanisms, troops on standby, ready to be deployed to a crisis within a short time frame by intergovernmental organizations, remains disappointing. Yet, many of the obstacles to multinational actors launching a rapid and effective military response in times...

Multinational Rapid Response Mechanisms: From Institutional Proliferation to Institutional Exploitation

The track record of military rapid response mechanisms, troops on standby, ready to be deployed to a crisis within a short time frame by intergovernmental organizations, remains disappointing. Yet, many of the obstacles to multinational actors launching a rapid and effective military response in times...

WPS and Female Peacekeepers

The chapter provides an overview of the participation of female peacekeeping personnel in UN missions, tracing key target and agenda- setting policy events, as well as examining causes for the slow progress in female participation. The chapter considers female participation in the military, police, and...

UN Peace Operations, Terrorism, and Violent Extremism

There are practical and financial reasons to give UN peace operations more robust mandates and mitigate and respond to violent extremism and terrorism. But the idea of UN peacekeepers conducting counter-terrorism operations is not without its challenges. Karlsrud argues that UN peace operations neither...

Implementation in practice: The use of force to protect civilians in United Nations peacekeeping

Since the failures of the United Nations of the early 1990s, the protection of civilians has evolved as a new norm for United Nations peacekeeping operations. However, a 2014 United Nations report found that while peacekeeping mandates often include the use of force to protect civilians, this has routinely...

Predictive peacekeeping: opportunities and challenges

The time is ripe for the development of a UN early warning tool that estimates the likelihood of instability, intercommunity clashes and armed violence in areas in which UN peacekeepers operate. However, this development would require at least some initial collaboration between the UN and the scientific...

From Liberal Peacebuilding to Stabilization and Counterterrorism

Since the end of the Cold War, international interventions have increasingly been deployed to deal with internal conflict. Liberal peacebuilding has been a guiding concept for many of these interventions, in particular those deployed by the UN. This article argues that liberal peacebuilding is waning...

Are UN Peacekeeping Missions Moving Toward "Chapter Seven and a Half Operations"?

The combined effect of the inclusion of regional ad hoc coalitions with a strong orientation towards counter-insurgency and counterterrorism is the creation of a new type of “Chapter Seven and a Half” operations. Enforcement action is delegated to regional ad hoc coalitions that have a stronger interest...

The UN at War: Peace Operations in a New Era

This book is a critical political and institutional reflection on UN peace operations. It provides constructive suggestions as to how the UN and the international system can evolve to remain relevant and tackle the peace and security challenges of the 21st century, without abandoning the principles that...