Hira Bahadur Thapa

As one of its core functions of securing world peace by resolving conflicts, the United Nations (UN) has employed a variety of tools of peaceful settlements. Of them, peacekeeping is an effective example of mobilising international collaborative efforts in the peaceful resolution of conflicts. This noble initiative has been taken for more than seven decades.

Entrusted with the authority of establishing international peace, the UN Security Council authorises the peacekeeping operations. In assisting the countries to navigate the difficult path from conflicts to peace, this initiative has proved to be effective despite criticism pointing to a very few distresses in some missions.

The success of the UN peacekeeping operations should also be judged from the number of such missions deployed in difficult situations. There have been 71 missions around the globe since 1948 when the first one was deployed in the Middle East following the Arab-Israeli conflict. But the nature and mandates of such missions have undergone a sea change over the years, especially after the demise of Cold War.

Multidimensional
Today’s UN missions are multidimensional. Besides, maintaining peace and security, such missions are also tasked to facilitate political processes and protect civilians. Additionally, peacekeepers are given the responsibility of assisting in disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of former combatants.

The UN mission deployed in Nepal in the wake of the decade-long conflict fitted this last group of peacekeepers when they were engaged in demobilisation of former Maoist combatants and helping the government authorities in getting them reintegrated into the society. Some of them have also been integrated into the Nepali Army based on the agreement between the government and the then CPN-Maoist. After having joined the mainstream politics, the party is in the present coalition government. Nepal is one of the few examples where the UN mission has successfully completed its mandate.
Since the end of Cold War, the UN has attempted to end 16 civil wars by deploying complex peacekeeping missions. Eleven missions out of 16 got success in executing their mandates. There has been no recurrence of conflicts in those places where UN missions completed their mandates.

There are many instances of successful peacekeeping operations, significant of which are Cambodia, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Liberia, Namibia, and Timor Liste. But critics often cite the two most painful stories of UN peacekeeping missions in Rwanda, and Bosnia overlooking the fact that lack of necessary resources and mandate impeded peacekeepers’ job of protecting the innocent civilians from the onslaught of violence.
An important academic study in 2019 calculated that between 2001 and 2013, the UN could have significantly cut violence in four to five major conflicts if the world had spent more on peacekeeping and provided existing operations with stronger mandates.

UN peacekeeping operations are managed by the Department of Peace Operations and supported by the Department of Operational Support at the UN Headquarters in New York. Once authorised by the UN Security Council, the missions’ budgetary expenses are met by the assessed contributions from the members. The permanent members of the Security Council bear the larger portions of UN peacekeeping budget.
The US is the largest contributor to such fund. Studies have revealed that the US has spent over $2.1 trillion on overseas contingency operations, including the Department of Defense appropriations since September 11, 2001.

But studies have disproved the negative perceptions of UN peacekeeping operations. Peacekeeping is effective at resolving civil wars, reducing violence during wars, preventing wars from reoccurring, and rebuilding state institutions. It succeeds in protecting lives and reducing sexual and gender violence at a very low cost compared to counterterrorism campaigns launched by the US.

Commitment
Some analysts argue that the US has a moral imperative as the largest contributor to UN peacekeeping budget to remain committed to its values. According to them, Washington has a geostrategic reason to act, as China, its strategic competitor, is stepping in to provide more resources to UN missions becoming UN peacekeeping’s second largest contributor.

As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China’s increasing interest and financial commitments to the UN always deserve welcome. Threats of US veto in the Security Council during extension debate of UN peacekeeping in 2002 no less exhibit their prioritisation of narrow American interests over international peace. Then it attempted to link its mission approval to the signature of bilateral agreements to protect US peacekeepers from likely action by the International Criminal Court.

The US plays an important leadership role in authorising and shaping UN missions. Therefore, it should set a better example by clearing its arrears to UN peacekeeping budget reinforcing the view that UN initiative is a collaborative international effort to resolve conflicts.

(Thapa was Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister from 2008-09. thapahira17@gmail.com)