United Nations Peacekeeping Challenge

The Importance of the Integrated Approach

Anna Powles, Negar Partow

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317004417
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politica e relazioni internazionali
• Subtopic: Organizzazioni intergovernative

Drawing from a diverse range of military, policing, academic and policymakers' experiences, this book seeks to provide solutions of how national militaries and police can work together to better support future United Nations peacekeeping operations. It addresses the growing tension between increasing non-combat related responsibilities being placed on land forces and the ability of UN peacekeeping forces to fulfil the demands of government and development tasks in fragile and conflict-affected environments. An original contribution to the debate on UN peacekeeping reforms that includes constructing an enhanced partnership for peacekeeping; building on renewed commitment to share the burden and for regional cooperation; providing peacekeepers with the necessary capabilities to protect civilians; and supporting nations in transition from conflict to stabilisation. This book offers the very latest in informed analysis and decision-making on UN peacekeeping reform.

PART I
Advancing Unity of Effort

Chapter 1
Challenges of 21st-Century Peace Operations in a United Nations Context

Ameerah Haq

UN peacekeeping has come a long way since the establishment of its first mission more than 60 years ago. With 115,000 peacekeepers deployed in 15 operations across four continents, there are nearly six times the number of blue helmets as there were 15 years ago; even since the year 2003, the size of the UN peacekeeping force has almost tripled.

This growth can be seen as a recognition by the international community that peacekeeping remains one of the most effective mechanisms to assist countries making the difficult transition from conflict to peace. It is a flexible, evolving instrument that brings together political, security, rule of law, humanitarian and development tools to initiate clear and measurable outcomes. Indeed, researchers have found that the probability of a given country successfully avoiding a relapse to conflict is 50 percent greater if a peacekeeping operation is deployed there. Nonetheless, UN peacekeeping also confronts a number of challenges and areas where further improvement and innovation is needed.¹

What follows is a strategic overview of the current status of UN peacekeeping, inclusive of some of the trends that have defined the mechanism in recent years. The chapter concludes by identifying a few specific areas where there are planned changes in how we do business. I hope that by outlining the challenges facing peacekeeping and the ways in which we are attempting to respond, the foundation will be strengthened for a deeper and more productive engagement between the UN, regional organizations and UN Member States.

The Evolving Peacekeeping Context

Peacekeeping is among the most visible, challenging and important roles played by the United Nations. The UN Charter asserts that the principle purpose of the UN is “to maintain peace and security, and to that end, to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace.” Yet the term “peacekeeping” is not found in the United Nations Charter and defies simple definition. Dag Hammarskjöld, the second UN Secretary-General, referred to peacekeeping as belonging to “Chapter Six and a Half” of the Charter, placing it between traditional methods of resolving disputes peacefully, such as negotiation and mediation under Chapter VI, and more forceful action as authorized under Chapter VII. The term “peace operations” is broader still, and addresses the full range of field missions, including political missions, peacekeeping operations, and peace support operations.

The first UN peacekeeping mission was established in 1948 with a mandate to observe the implementation of armistice agreements between Israel and four of its neighboring countries. Today, “blue helmets” are involved in a wider range of activities, including the stabilization of post-conflict situations, political reconciliation, the protection of civilians, support to national elections, support to the rule of law and human rights, border monitoring and the restoration of state authority.

The Department of Field Support (DFS) provides support to a total of 30 peace operations (including 15 UN peacekeeping operations and 15 special political missions), as well as one AU-led peace operation in Somalia. DFS provides support in the areas of finance, logistics, information and communication technology, human resources and general administration. Since its creation in 2007, DFS has worked with the Departments of Peacekeeping Operations, Political Affairs and Management to support six newly authorized missions, including three peacekeeping operations in Abyei, Syria and Mali, as well as three political missions in Libya, Somalia and the Great Lakes. Most recently, DFS has worked closely with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in the establishment of the Joint Mission in Syria.

The types of challenges facing the UN in these places are wide-ranging and complex. In Mali, the UN confronts insurgents who blend in easily with the local communities of the North; this type of environment is indicative of emerging threats which may increasingly confront UN peacekeeping in the future. In Haiti, peacekeepers support the country’s resurgence from protracted political and communal violence, while assisting with reconstruction and stability efforts demanded by successive natural disasters. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Security Council has authorized UN forces to prevent the expansion of armed groups and disarm them; this mission is being conducted in partnership with the Congolese army. The UN also utilizes regional partnerships in Somalia, where it provides logistical and material support to African Union troops.

As these examples show, UN peacekeeping missions’ mandates, roles, and models have evolved since the Organization’s founding. With the exception of the UN Mission to Congo (ONUC) in 1960, most of the early years of UN peacekeeping were characterized by the presence of observer troops who supervised the implementation of peace agreements; their presence was a powerful deterrent to breaches of the agreements. The role of these peacekeepers was relatively static and focused on preventing conflict between states; today, the conflicts confronting UN peacekeeping are increasing emerging within states. These threats tend to be less visible to outside observers and closer, at least in geographic proximity, to civilian communities. It is for this reason that UN peace operations increasingly contain a mix of military, police, and civilian experts. Peacekeeping missions confront armed groups that bear no loyalty to any official military or sovereign political power. Jihadist militias in Mali and the many armed groups active in the eastern DRC are examples of “unconventional” forces, which are increasingly the rule rather than the exception.

As the challenges faced by peacekeepers become more complicated, the risks they face while serving become more acute. In April 2013 an Indian contingent in Jonglei, South Sudan was deliberately targeted. Five troops lost their lives. In June, militants affiliated with the Al-Shabaab group in Somalia mounted an attack and successfully forced their way into the UN complex in Mogadishu; this resulted in the deaths of several national and international UN personnel. In October 2013, two Chadian peacekeepers were killed by a suicide bomber at Tessalit in Mali, and in December, two more in Kidal, Mali.

The reality of dealing with non-traditional forces goes beyond the logistical challenges of identifying the enemy. Challenges also arise from the difficult fact that we—UN troops and UN civilians—are more than ever before targets in the complex calculus of insurrection, insurgency, and terrorism.

On August 19, 2003, Sergio Vieira de Mello, the then-SRSG in Iraq, and nearly two dozen members of his team were killed when a truck bomb rolled into a relatively unprotected compound at the Canal Hotel in Baghdad; this day marked a turning point in the history of UN peace operations. Thereafter, armed militants began actively seeking to harm UN troops and civilians, something that would have been taboo, unthinkable, and supremely counter to their political interests up until that point.

The implications for UN peacekeeping have been profound. Alongside the collapse of the Canal Hotel, the UN’s sense of security disintegrated overnight. The UN has been in a state of high alert ever since, with limitations on the ability of mission personnel to operate freely and with troops devoting more time, energy, and resources, to protecting UN personnel and property. An age of innocence has passed, and so too has our ability to stand above the fray.

Improving UN Peacekeeping’s Cost Effectiveness

With these challenges before us, it is imperative that UN peacekeepers on the ground receive the support they need with exemplary quality and speed. Further, cost-effectiveness must be taken into account. Since my appointment as Under-Secretary-General for Field Support in June 2012, I have devoted considerable time to various reforms launched by DFS, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), the Department of Management (DM), and the Organization as a whole. It is my firm belief that it is incumbent upon every one of us to push the envelope in improving mission support, refining the systems that shape the pace and parameters of life at mission level, and maximizing both the productivity and the efficiency of mandate implementation. Despite the risks it may entail for all our troop- and police-contributing countries, the campaign to solidify peace and bring a better life to those caught up in war is our collective responsibility.

However, the pursuit of reform is not always easy. The sheer scale and complexity of UN peacekeeping efforts require an unwavering commitment to reform and to cost-effectiveness. Across the 15 peacekeeping operations currently managed by the UN, 119 nations contribute approximately 98,000 troops and police to this collective effort. The total cost of UN peacekeeping today is just under $8 billion annually. The main cost component of this total—37 percent at last count—is paid directly to Governments for their contribution of military and police. A further eight percent is marked for rations and rotation movements for uniformed personnel.

Within the Departments of Field Support and Peacekeeping Operations, we lead an ever-present search for efficiency gains. Increasing cost-effectiveness without any adverse impact on mandate implementation is a difficult balancing act. The clear directive from the Member States has been to “do more with less.” The budgetary pressures on many Member States in this global financial environment require us to optimize the use of resources. Our two departments continue to undertake periodic mission reviews as well as military personnel and civilian staffing reviews to adjust to these cost-saving directives.

We also have multiple safeguards in place to ensure strong and transparent oversight of resources, including internal and external oversight bodies, regular staff ethics training programs, and other enforcement systems. The Secretary-General’s Enterprise Risk Management policy is in place, and our two departments also promulgated risk management guidelines in December last year.

Our Global Field Support Strategy (GFSS), in its fourth year of implementation, highlights our efforts to improve both quality and cost-effectiveness of mission support. In the December 2013 report of the Secretary-General on the GFSS, we set out an “end-state vision” for each of the main pillars of the strategy, namely: shared services; supply chain management and modularization; human resources; and finance. We are seeking to ensure that established systems to improve service delivery are sustained in each of these areas for years to come.

As a result, while the overall budget of UN peacekeeping is at an all-time high, we expect per capita costs for peacekeeping to be more than 15 percent lower in 2013/14 than in 2008/09 when measured in terms of the number of deployed uniformed personnel. New missions such as those in Mali ratchet up the overall budget, but established missions have been engaged in a persistent and successful campaign to reduce costs. Had the Security Council not authorized new missions in this last year, UN peacekeeping would have achieved an overall reduction of five percent amounting to US$320 million.

Yet while we prioritize responsible stewardship of our limited resources, the overarching priority must be to ensure safe and secure conditions for peacekeeping personnel. As we deploy to more volatile environments, the costs associated with higher tempo operations and enhanced safety and security measures will likely rise.

My department, the Department of Field Support, has sought to achieve “win–win” outcomes where greater impact and lower cost can be achieved in tandem. One approach is to introduce what we call shared services. Rather than each peacekeeping mission managing its own procurement, human resources, and financial matters, we can consolidate these functions in regional service centers. These allow a critical mass of skilled personnel to provide services to multiple missions, such as our main logistics base in Brindisi, Italy, and our regional service center in Entebbe, Uganda.

The Regional Service Centre (RSCE) in Entebbe, which supports our operations in East Africa, reflects this commitment to shared services. For example, the Transportation and Movements Integrated Control Centre supports the regional coordination of air assets, troop and police deployments, and troop and police rotations. Last year, we introduced a wide-body aircraft that has proven to be a more direct, convenient and comfortable mode of transport within the African region, managed out of the RSCE. In 2014, we plan to identify the most appropriate arrangements for expanding the benefits of shared services to all peacekeeping missions.

Building on the same concept of shared services, we are also working to increase inter-mission cooperation. Last year the UN was able to set up a fully functioning mission in Syria (the UN Supervision Mission in Syria, or UNSMIS) within one month of the Security Council Resolution that mandated it. The startup of UNSMIS was telling in several ways. The speed with which it was set-up was attainable because of a high degree of inter-mission cooperation. UNIFIL, UNDOF, UNTSO and UNFICYP—all established missions in the region—worked together and resolved many of the challenges by digging deep within their limited reserves to deploy assets in support of the new operation. This included the provision of equipment, supplies, telecommunications, and the administration of personnel. Our base in Brindisi provided critical support that allowed our civilians and military observers to hit the ground running.

More recently, we introduced several innovations to expedite the start-up of the mission in Mali. Most of our back-office functions for MINUSMA have been provided by staff in our mission in nearby Côte d’Ivoire. The two missions work closely to coordinate the sharing of human and physical resources. Our troops in Mali receive rations and fuel through pre-existing contracts for ONUCI personnel in Ivory Coast. Our procurement team in Abidjan conducted advance work that provided our troops in Mali with premises and the resources earlier than would have been possible if the mission in Mali had acted alone. This has saved precious time. We have streamlined the process for the recruitment of civilian staff in Mali; the mission has been given an unusual degree of delegated authority to hire in the speediest manner possible.

Confronting Challenges to UN Peacekeeping

Just as a parent raises a child, with care and sometimes a little “tough love,” so too must we look with objectivity at where UN peacekeeping needs to do better, where it can do better, and what we can do to move forward together in the right direction. This section addresses several specific opportunities to grow peacekeeping further and also touches on several areas where we are grappling with new ways of responding ...