The 75th Anniversary of UN Peacekeeping: Introduction to a Special Issue of Global Governance.

• Author: Lyon, Alynna

1 Background

In the shadow of two world wars, the architects of the UN boldly set out in its Charter "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war." Within a few years it was clear that peace, often hard fought for, was fragile and easily broken. Peace was something that would need to be kept. In turn, peacekeeping began tentatively. As Brian Drohan notes in the first article of this special issue, the UN's engagement was initially "built on impartiality, the nonuse of force, and consent." The UN was to be a neutral actor that would monitor, observe, and help to build trust between two or more conflicting parties. Today, peacekeeping is often perceived as a symbol of UN innovation and adaptation. Not only has peacekeeping become "one of the most visible symbols of the UN role in international peace and security," (1) it often represents the organization at its best. At the same time, peacekeeping also calls to mind some of the UN's darkest hours, as peacekeepers have failed in the face of persistent and horrific violence and have sometimes brought harm to the very people they were pledged to protect.

The editors of Global Governance are pleased to introduce this special issue reflecting on seventy-five years of UN peacekeeping. The contributors document UN innovations, competing expectations, efforts at adaptation, cases of significant success, moments of tragedy, as well as the efforts of scholars and policymakers to grapple with a kaleidoscopic landscape of conflict. The contributions here confirm that, to adapt a phrase from Charles Tilly, peacekeeping made the UN as the UN made peacekeeping. In the articles that follow, scholars and practitioners explore several key questions including: What is the United Nations' peacekeeping function? How did it emerge, and how and why has it changed over time? What are the primary achievements of UN peacekeeping over the past seventy-five years and what challenges has it faced? Is UN peacekeeping effective at keeping peace? And is it fit for purpose in light of the nature of conflict today and in the future?

The picture that emerges from these pages is that peacekeeping is greatly needed, still evolving, and yet diminishing. This issue (2 of volume 29) traces its origins, its evolution from Chapter VI operations that did not employ force to Chapter VII operations that can "resemble war operations" with authorization to pursue combatants, to its current situation and what John Karlsrud refers to as "marginalization." After a period of growth in the number of operations and mandates, there have been no new operations. Beyond this, there has been a decrease in the number of personnel by almost 40,000 over the past decade. The decline in UN peacekeeping operations is due to several factors including great-power divides, a lack of fit for purpose as peacekeepers were called to serve as counterterrorism agents, and significant expectations gaps. There is also evidence of the need for more localized, nimble, and civilian-centered approaches. Finally, as Andrew E. Yaw Tchie's contribution highlights, there are innovations in peacekeeping outside of the UN, particularly in Africa. Thus, many of the observers in this issue point out that to continue to be effective and relevant, peacekeeping must be nimble and have the right mandate, context, resources, and will. In these ways, this special issue provides the basis for a clear-eyed view of whether peace can be kept in the future, especially in light of the elevated levels of uncertainty in international affairs today.

2 The Rise of Peacekeeping

It was not foreordained that the world body would end up here. The UN Charter never mentions peacekeeping--it was an innovation established incrementally based on need and a changing world. The first such endeavor was the UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), when the Security Council in Resolution 50 (1948) authorized the establishment of a small group of military observers to assist a UN mediator in supervising the implementation of the Israel-Arab Armistice Agreements. Here, the foundation of peacekeeping was built on a commitment to limit the use of force, observe strict neutrality, and obtain the prior consent of parties involved.

For the first few decades, UN peacekeeping operations were deployed only after a cessation of hostilities agreement had been reached between warring parties. UN personnel were lightly armed and served to monitor and build confidence between factions. The tools incorporated were noncoercive and usually authorized under Chapter VI of the UN Charter, which relies on mediation and negotiation. Of the more than seventy operations since 1948, most were initiated in the 1990s following the end of the Cold War. Yet over the same decade, events in Somalia, Rwanda, and...