UN Security Challenges and Peacekeeping Missions

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Table of Contents

Background
Various Challenges Faced
Peacekeeping Challenges: Political Aspects
Functional Peacekeeping Limitations
Financial Limitations in Peacekeeping
Peacekeeping Poor Optics
References

Background

After the Second World War, the initiative was to create the United Nations to foster world peace and security. The UN has played a significant role in establishing long-term stability through conflict prevention, assisting in peace negotiations, and conducting peacekeeping missions (Krishnan, 2020). While some of these functions overlap, it further emphasizes their effectiveness across different parts of the world. Its Security Council maintains international security and peace while the General Assembly allows member states to voice concerns and make recommendations. The UN faces various challenges in supporting mediation, countering terrorism, peacebuilding, and disarmament. The paper herein focuses on the challenges of their peacekeeping missions.

Various Challenges Faced

When pursuing mediation, the UN has had less success recently as violence mainly entails armed groups, with surveys showing a record-high fifty-six state-based conflicts as of 2020 (Hellmüller & Wählisch, 2022). In efforts to counter terrorism, the UN contends with government actions like human rights violations which bolster terrorist propaganda. Disarmament unsuccess presents a situation where ancient national practices and laws inhibit the UN’s progressive aims (Rydell, 2020). Peace-building falters because post-war periods may include violent phases as people scramble for the little resources available (Öjendal et al., 2021). Peacekeeping is more complicated, and the following breakdown offers a better perspective.

Peacekeeping Challenges: Political Aspects

The UN peacekeeping missions are one of the most critical strategies employed and face political setbacks. One political viewpoint is that of how protocols agreed upon seem to hinder the UN from enacting its duty to intervene. Protocol dictates that the UN has to get consent from the host country. Furthermore, all operations require a certain amount of local political goodwill to succeed (Sarjoon & Yusoff, 2019). A territory’s political instability, like a coup’s occurrence, influences the Security Council’s decision on whether to approve missions (Gowan & Pradhan, 2022). The politics in the UN means there are political setbacks on both sides.

Functional Peacekeeping Limitations

The UN peacekeeping missions are responses to situations in the hopes of quelling threats through peaceful intervention. However, some missions constitute going to combative areas that require some form of military action. The UN lacks a military wing since they have no authority to engage in combat (Hegre et al., 2019). Therefore, in areas where the threat seems poised to intensify, the peacekeepers become mere bystanders. For instance, the Rwanda genocide resulted in almost a million deaths despite the presence of UN peacekeepers (Jain, 2019). Such a case makes it problematic to view the UN peacekeeping missions as a great contributor to world peace.

Financial Limitations in Peacekeeping

There are no legal mandates for nations to make contributions; thus, when missions happen, they are on a strict budget. For example, the peacekeeping mission in Mali by MINUSMA set to foster the Algiers Agreement and stabilize northern Mali, which they did until 2016. Things escalated after that, forcing the UN to order more civilian protection in the middle of the country without sending additional resources, thus stretching MINUSMA into failure (Van der Lijn, 2019). If the resources dedicated to peacekeeping are not enough, those dedicating their lives cannot do a good job or protect the locals and themselves.

Peacekeeping Poor Optics

The UN’s aforementioned failures create a poor reputation in some regions regarding how they conduct their peacekeeping missions. A good example is territories that have faced the threat of armed militia for decades, and despite the presence of UN troops, there has been little to no mitigation. In recent news, there were demonstrations against UN peacekeeping in DR Congo due to the failure of MONUSCO, the peacekeeping mission team in DR Congo, to quash decades-old hostilities (Al Jazeera, 2022). The vicious protests by the locals have led to the loss of lives on both sides, which is cause for concern over the role of the UN in the region.

References

Al Jazeera. (2022). At least 15 killed as anti-UN protests spread in eastern DR Congo. Web.

Gowan, R., & Pradhan, A. (2022). Why the UN Security Council stumbles in responding to coups. Web.

Hegre, H., Hultman, L., & Nygård, H. (2019). Evaluating the Conflict-Reducing Effect of UN Peacekeeping Operations. The Journal Of Politics, 81(1), 215-232. Web.

Hellmüller, S., & Wählisch, M. (2022). Reflecting about the Past, Present, and Future of UN Mediation. International Negotiation, 27(1), 1-9. Web.

Jain, K. (2019). Lessons from the UN peacekeeping mission in Rwanda, 25 years after the genocide it failed to stop. The Conversation. Web.

Öjendal, J., Bachmann, J., Stern, M., & Leonardsson, H. (2021). Introduction – Peacebuilding Amidst Violence. Journal Of Intervention And Statebuilding, 15(3), 269-288. Web.

Rydell, R. (2020). The Guterres Disarmament Agenda and the Challenge of Constructing a Global Regime for Weapons. Journal For Peace And Nuclear Disarmament, 3(1), 21-40. Web.

Sarjoon, A., & Yusoff, M. (2019). The United Nations Peacekeeping Operations and Challenges. Academic Journal Of Interdisciplinary Studies, 8(3), 202-211. Web.

Van der Lijn, J. (2019). The UN peace operation in Mali: A troubled yet needed mission. Web.

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