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...

Between self-interest and solidarity: Norway’s return to UN peacekeeping?

This edited volume provides a comprehensive analysis of European approaches to United Nations peacekeeping by assessing past practice, present obstacles and future potentials related to nine core European countries’ contributions to blue helmet operations. By providing in-depth case studies on Denmark,...

Plug and Play: Multinational Rotation Contributions for UN Peacekeeping Operations

In January 2016, Norway deployed a C-130 military transport aircraft to the UN mission in Mali (MINUSMA). Given the number of attacks on patrols and logistics convoys of MINUSMA, which has been called ‘the world’s most dangerous UN mission’, a military transport aircraft like the C-130 is considered...

Quasi-Professionals in the Organisation of Transnational Crisis Mapping

The recent explosion of increasingly sophisticated mobile information communications technologies (ICTs) has led to the creation of new and complex networks and relationships. The fastest growth and adoption of mobile technologies is now in the developing world and often among populations facing development...

UN-Friedenssicherung und Terrorismusbekämpfung: seltsame Bettgenossen?

Engelsk sammendrag: UN Peacekeeping and Counterterrorism: Uncomfortable Bedfellows? Based on the case of the UN Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), the article argues that UN peacekeeping neither is, nor will be ready operationally, doctrinally or politically to take on counterterrorism tasks....

Multinational rapid response mechanisms: Past promises and future prospects

Military rapid response mechanisms are generally understood as troops that are on standby, ready to be deployed to a crisis within a short time frame. Yet, the overall track record of the existing multinational rapid response mechanisms within the European Union, the African Union, and North Atlantic...

Plug and Play: Multinational Rotation Contributions for UN Peacekeeping Operations

In 2016, Norway spearheaded the provision of multinational rotation contribution (MRC) of a C-130 transport plane, together with Belgium, Denmark, Portugal, and Sweden, lasting from January 2016 to December 2018. According to Hervé Ladsous, then Under Secretary-General (USG) for UN peacekeeping operations,...

UN Peacekeeping and Counter-terrorism

There are strong calls to give UN peacekeeping operations more robust mandates to engage in counter-terrorism tasks. But the idea of UN peacekeepers conducting counter-terrorism operations is not without its problems, John Karlsrud writes in this op-ed.