Hardly had I posted my take on the current peacekeeping crisis yesterday than Thorsten Benner and his colleagues at GPPi published this op-ed in the IHT:
UN peacekeeping is the victim of its own success: Never before in their 60-year history have blue helmets been in such high demand. About 110,000 personnel are deployed in 20 peace operations around the world, more than a six-fold increase from 10 years ago.
However, UN member states have neglected making crucial investments in the support infrastructure for an expanding network of large peace operations with increasingly complex tasks, from protecting civilians to rebuilding defunct institutions in post-conflict states. As a result, the UN apparatus is severely overstretched, exhibiting increasingly serious pathologies ranging from sluggish deployments to shocking sexual abuse scandals.
Worse yet, the Security Council has returned to the ill-fated practice of sending peacekeepers into ever-more hostile environments where there simply is no peace to keep.
Recent reports from Darfur, the largest and most expensive UN mission to date, are reminiscent of the news from Bosnia in the weeks before the fall of Srebrenica: UN peacekeepers, facing a logistical and political nightmare, are unable to defend themselves, let alone protect the civilian population. Were further large-scale atrocities to occur under the UN’s watch in Darfur, the repercussions would threaten to undermine the entire business of peace operations.
Thorsten and I often find ourselves on the same page – we’re both advocates of greater European engagement in Iraq, for example. I hope that, when it comes to peacekeeping, we’re both wrong. If we’re right, it’s going to be grim out there.
