One month before launching the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations to examine the state of UN peacekeeping operations and political missions, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon remarked the time had come to take stock of the lessons we have learned. “The world is changing and our support to peacekeeping, and indeed all peace operations, must keep pace.”
The nature of conflict is shifting with the inter-state confrontations that led to the creation of the world body giving way to internationalized civil wars. Peace operations today are deployed into complex operating theaters, intractable political situations and high-risk environments.
This summary details four main trends of this pivotal moment for multilateral peace operations during 2013 and 2014 including:
- Innovation around peace operations;
- Surging African peacekeeping;
- Proliferating peacemaking initiatives by regional organizations, and;
- Increased risk for peacekeepers and civilian staff.