The Crisis of UN Peacekeeping Brief Summary

Global Presence: Roughly $1$ billion people live under the threat of violence in approximately $50$ conflict zones.
Scale of Force: The United Nations (UN) maintains the second-largest military force deployed abroad, with more than $78,000$ soldiers and $25,000$ civilians stationed across $14$ countries.
Scope of Mandates: Missions involve a wide range of tasks including protecting civilians, training police, monitoring human rights, organizing elections, and rebuilding judicial systems in countries like Haiti, Mali, Kosovo, and South Sudan.

Origins: The UN Charter ( $1945$ ) does not explicitly mention peacekeeping. The first ad hoc mission occurred in $1948$ when guards were sent to monitor the truce between Israel and its Arab neighbors in Palestine.
Cold War Constraints: Due to Security Council vetoes during the East-West rivalry, missions were rare, with only $13$ occurring between $1948$ and $1978$ , and none between $1979$ and $1987$ .
Mixed Record: Notable examples include the successful cease-fire maintenance on the Egyptian-Israeli border in the Sinai, contrasted by failure at the Israeli-Syrian border in the Golan Heights following the $1973$ Yom Kippur War.
Recognition: Despite a limited global impact, UN peacekeeping forces were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in $1988$ .

Top-Down Approach: A primary cause of failure identified by Séverine Autesserre is the reliance on deals struck with elites and a fixation on holding elections.
Neglect of Local Context: The UN often ignores "bottom-up strategies" that utilize local knowledge and allow populations to determine their own security needs.
Sustainability: Peacekeepers frequently declare victory after elections without addressing the root causes of conflict, leading to recurring violence.
Resource Constraints: While lack of resources is a factor, the fundamental problem remains a misunderstanding of how to achieve sustained peace.