UN Peacekeeping

Pulling Peacekeepers From Darfur Will Be a Murderous Mistake

May 27, 2020

The world plans to withdraw peacekeepers from Darfur by the end of this year. Without an alternative in place, this premature departure is a disaster in the making for the millions of Darfuris it will leave behind. While the West weighs the best ways to protect civilians going forward, I and millions of Darfuris …

Africa, Covid-19, Security Council, UN Peacekeeping

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COVID-19

E-Learning Is Nothing New for UN Peacekeepers, but Demand Is Up

May 5, 2020

by Susan Manuel

Covid-19 has forced educators from preschools to universities to create digital classrooms overnight. But at least one global community has been using e-learning for more than a decade. Tens of thousands of United Nations peacekeepers from Chile to Bangladesh to South Africa have long been using online courses to prepare for deployment to the …

Covid-19, UN Peacekeeping

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COVID-19

What the Pandemic Means for UN Peacekeeping Work

April 8, 2020

by Robert Ulrich Nagel and Melanne Verveer

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Covid-19 poses major challenges for people and governments around the world and for the United Nations. UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for a global cease-fire on March 23 in recognition of the pandemic’s potentially devastating effects on people in conflict-affected nations. Less noticed in the press coverage was the important point …

Covid-19, UN Peacekeeping

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TOPIC: WOMEN

In Haiti, a Result of Peacekeepers Who Abuse Their Power: ‘Petits Minustahs’

January 16, 2020

by Susan A. Bartels

In Haiti, a young woman I’ll call Marie became involved with a United Nations peacekeeper from Brazil when she was 14 years old. She became pregnant. He was sent back to Brazil; she was ostracized by her family. In 2017, when our research team met with Marie, she said that she and her son, …

UN Peacekeeping, Women

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Master of Science in Humanitarian Studies at Fordham University

Politics and Understaffing Delay US Funding to the Main UN Budgets

December 3, 2019

by Maurizio Guerrero

Politics and understaffing are the main reasons the United States has still not paid its outstanding dues to the general budget of the United Nations, after much news coverage of the problem in early October. The UN is experiencing an unprecedented financial crisis that threatens its peacekeeping operations globally and severely hampers its work …

UN Peacekeeping, US-UN Relations

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TOPIC: WOMEN

My Year in Africa: Why This Brazilian Woman Peacekeeper Wants to Return

September 10, 2019

by Pérola Abreu Pereira and Giovanna Kuele

In one of the world’s most fragile and violent settings, Lieut. Comdr. Marcia Braga, a 45-year-old Brazilian naval officer, arrived in April 2018 as the third military gender adviser for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic. She ended her yearlong stint there bestowed with the UN’s annual Military Gender Advocate …

Africa, UN Peacekeeping, Women

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WORLDVIEWS

The Future of UN Peacekeeping Will Resemble What It Is Now

July 16, 2019

by Dennis Jett

The United Nations was not even three years old when it launched its first peacekeeping mission in 1948. For the last 70 years, it has been continuously involved in such operations, often with mixed results. Over that time, peacekeeping and the wars to which it has been applied have changed. The challenges peacekeepers face …

Security Council, UN Peacekeeping, WORLDVIEWS

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A Survey on Mali for Malians: What They Want for Their Country

June 24, 2019

by Dulcie Leimbach

Since 2012, a German political think tank has surveyed Malians regularly on their country’s current affairs across a legion of crises. These include the 2013 jihadist incursion in the nation, the French-led militarization to oust the jihadists, the post-conflict stabilization work done by the United Nations and a new cycle of intercommunal violence erupting …

Africa, Security Council, UN Peacekeeping, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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How Uruguayan Peacekeepers Found the Two Dead UN Experts in Congo in 2017

May 29, 2019

by Dulcie Leimbach

Two years have passed since the shooting murders of Michael Sharp and Zaida Catalán, independent experts working for the United Nations Security Council in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in March 2017. Sharp, a 34-year-old American, and Catalán, a 36-year-old Swedish-Chilean, had gone on a mission, without UN escorts, to find information about …

Africa, Security Council, UN Peacekeeping

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Trump’s Strong-Arm Cuts Put UN Peacekeepers Out in the Cold

April 29, 2019

by La Rainne Pasion

The Trump administration’s unilateral decision to stop paying its full United Nations peacekeeping bills is hanging peacekeeping missions out to dry while creating financial woes for the countries that provide the blue-helmeted troops and police officers, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is warning. The UN’s member nations owed the peacekeeping operations just under $2 billion …

UN Peacekeeping, US Foreign Relations, US-UN Relations

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WORLDVIEWS

Why Developing Nations Send So Many Troops to UN Peace Ops

February 12, 2019

by Thomas G. Weiss and Giovanna Kuele

Africa, Asia and Latin America provide more than 90 percent of military and police personnel to United Nations peace operations and contribute about 15 percent of the budget. China, hardly a legitimate representative of the Global South as the world’s second-largest economy and a permanent member of the Security Council, inflates the budget number because its …

UN Peacekeeping, WORLDVIEWS

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WORLDVIEWS

When Is an Attack on UN Peacekeepers a War Crime and When Is It Not?

November 30, 2018

by Mona Ali Khalil

The recent attack by a militia on the United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in which seven peacekeepers were killed, highlighted a question that the Security Council has hesitated to confront for years. What are the consequences when UN peacekeeping missions become parties to the conflict? The Security Council responded to the latest attacks on Monusco, as …

Africa, UN Peacekeeping, WORLDVIEWS

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The UN’s Combat Troops in the Congo: ‘They Were Not Supposed to Die’

November 29, 2018

by Dulcie Leimbach

United Nations peacekeepers working for the mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were killed by a militia in a jungle in North Kivu Province on Nov. 15, leaving seven soldiers dead: six Malawians and one Tanzanian. Ten were injured. Twelve members of the Congolese armed forces were also killed, as national forces …

Africa, Security Council, UN Peacekeeping, US Foreign Relations

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WORLDVIEWS

In the Central African Republic, Verging on Peace or Back to War

November 12, 2018

by Alexandra Lamarche

This is a make-or-break moment for the Central African Republic. After years of conflict, a small window of opportunity is open to make real progress toward peace. The United Nations peacekeeping mission’s mandate is being renewed by the Security Council by Nov. 15. Soon after, the final round of the African Union-led peace negotiations …

Africa, Security Council, UN Peacekeeping, WORLDVIEWS

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UN Peacekeepers Murdered on Duty Die in Obscurity

October 29, 2018

by Rhona Scullion

In the early morning of Tuesday, April 3, 2018, a temporary United Nations peacekeeping base in the village of Tagbara, in the Central African Republic, was attacked by rebel militia groups. One peacekeeper was killed and 11 others were injured in the fighting. Soon after, the UN also discovered the bodies of 21 civilians, …

Africa, ICC, UN Peacekeeping

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UN Peacekeeping

Pulling Peacekeepers From Darfur Will Be a Murderous Mistake

E-Learning Is Nothing New for UN Peacekeepers, but Demand Is Up

What the Pandemic Means for UN Peacekeeping Work

In Haiti, a Result of Peacekeepers Who Abuse Their Power: ‘Petits Minustahs’

Politics and Understaffing Delay US Funding to the Main UN Budgets

My Year in Africa: Why This Brazilian Woman Peacekeeper Wants to Return

The Future of UN Peacekeeping Will Resemble What It Is Now

A Survey on Mali for Malians: What They Want for Their Country

How Uruguayan Peacekeepers Found the Two Dead UN Experts in Congo in 2017

Trump’s Strong-Arm Cuts Put UN Peacekeepers Out in the Cold

Why Developing Nations Send So Many Troops to UN Peace Ops

When Is an Attack on UN Peacekeepers a War Crime and When Is It Not?

The UN’s Combat Troops in the Congo: ‘They Were Not Supposed to Die’

In the Central African Republic, Verging on Peace or Back to War

UN Peacekeepers Murdered on Duty Die in Obscurity

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