A New Approach to United Nations Peace Operations: Pathways for Demand-Driven Interventions

The document argues that UN peace operations are in a 'period of retrenchment' due to a crisis of confidence and a failure to adapt to evolving conflict landscapes. It identifies systemic issues such as 'Christmas Tree mandates'—overly ambitious and multi-dimensional tasks—and a reliance on 'templated and bureaucratic approaches' to deployment. The authors advocate for a shift toward tailored, adaptive, and people-centered mission models. Key recommendations include prioritizing strategic objectives over individual tasks, improving coordination between peace operations and UN country teams, and leveraging partnerships with regional organizations like the African Union. The brief also emphasizes the need for proactive transition planning to avoid the 'peacebuilding financing cliff' and calls for more predictable, flexible resourcing to replace current arbitrary budget cuts and liquidity shortfalls.

• UN peace operations are currently experiencing a crisis of confidence and a period of retrenchment, evidenced by the fact that the UN Security Council has not mandated a new peacekeeping operation since 2014.
• The tendency to create 'Christmas Tree mandates'—wide-ranging and multi-dimensional tasks—often distracts missions from clear political strategies and is frequently unsupported by adequate resources.
• The UN's reliance on 'templated' multidimensional peacekeeping models is inflexible and fails to adapt to specific country contexts, a problem exacerbated by the institutional bifurcation between peacekeeping and special political missions.
• Coordination between peace operations and UN country teams is often hindered by differing institutional cultures and mandates, sometimes leading missions to disregard country teams due to their size.
• The UN-AU partnership has been strengthened by Security Council resolution 2719 (2023), which provides a framework for financing African Union-led peace support operations authorized by the Security Council.
• Mission transitions are often reactive rather than proactive, frequently occurring due to deteriorating political support or withdrawal of consent by host governments, such as in Mali and Sudan.
• Countries face a 'peacebuilding financing cliff' upon the departure of peace operations, where a drop in international attention and funding threatens hard-won gains.
• Financial constraints are driven by a cycle of self-censorship by the Secretariat and arbitrary budget cuts by the General Assembly's Fifth Committee and the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions.

APA

Yohannes, D., Dessu, M. K., Liaga, E., Belay, T., & Chen, E. (2024). A New Approach to United Nations Peace Operations: Pathways for Demand-Driven Interventions. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/UN-Peace-Operations-PB.pdf

Chicago

Yohannes, Dawit, Meressa K. Dessu, Emmaculate Liaga, Tsion Belay, and Eugene Chen. A New Approach to United Nations Peace Operations: Pathways for Demand-Driven Interventions. Institute for Security Studies, 2024. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/UN-Peace-Operations-PB.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Yohannes |first1=Dawit |last2=Dessu |first2=Meressa K. |last3=Liaga |first3=Emmaculate |last4=Belay |first4=Tsion |last5=Chen |first5=Eugene |title=A New Approach to United Nations Peace Operations: Pathways for Demand-Driven Interventions |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=February 2024 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/UN-Peace-Operations-PB.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{yohannes2024new, author = {Yohannes, Dawit and Dessu, Meressa K. and Liaga, Emmaculate and Belay, Tsion and Chen, Eugene}, title = {{A New Approach to United Nations Peace Operations: Pathways for Demand-Driven Interventions}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2024}, month = feb, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/UN-Peace-Operations-PB.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }