{"id":13048,"date":"2016-03-02T07:00:23","date_gmt":"2016-03-02T12:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/un-peacekeeping-at-new-highs-after-post-cold-war-surge-and-decline\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:18:52","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:18:52","slug":"un-peacekeeping-at-new-highs-after-post-cold-war-surge-and-decline","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/beta.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2016\/03\/02\/un-peacekeeping-at-new-highs-after-post-cold-war-surge-and-decline\/","title":{"rendered":"UN peacekeeping at new highs after post-Cold War surge and decline"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

The number of United Nations peacekeeping forces around the world has peaked in recent months, after falling off\u00a0in the late 1990s. Today, more than 100,000 uniformed peacekeepers are deployed under 16 different missions \u2013 with the highest numbers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan\u00a0and\u00a0South Sudan.<\/p>\n\n

The first historical mission with a sizable military force was the\u00a0UN Operation in the Congo (ONUC)<\/a> in the early 1960s, which sought to\u00a0restore\u00a0order in the\u00a0former Belgian colony that had fallen into violence. About\u00a020,000 peacekeepers took part in the mission, during which then\u00a0Secretary-General\u00a0Dag Hammarskj\u00f6ld\u00a0died\u00a0in a plane crash<\/a>\u00a0while flying into the region for diplomatic\u00a0talks.<\/p>\n\n

Peacekeeping activities\u00a0were relatively infrequent for the next 25 years, but they\u00a0spiked under the leadership of\u00a0Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who\u00a0died in mid-February<\/a>. During Boutros-Ghali\u2019s January 1992 to December 1996 tenure, the number of ongoing missions rose from 10 to 18 \u2013\u00a0including high-profile operations in the former Yugoslavia, Somalia and Rwanda \u2013\u00a0while the number of peacekeeping forces reached a then high of nearly 79,000 in 1994, according to data from\u00a0the UN<\/a>, the\u00a0Stimson Center<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0International Peace Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

But those first years after the Cold War\u00a0were seen as a period\u00a0of trial and error for UN peacekeeping\u00a0in general, and by 1999\u00a0the number of peacekeepers in the field dropped to about 12,000.<\/p>\n\n

Amid that\u00a0lull,\u00a0Secretary-General Kofi Annan,\u00a0who was head of peacekeeping under Boutros-Ghali, ordered internal reviews of the UN peacekeeping framework, examining their\u00a0failures to prevent genocide in\u00a0Rwanda<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Srebrenica<\/a>. These reviews led to the\u00a0publication of the landmark\u00a0\u201cBrahimi Report<\/a>\u201d in 2000 (named for\u00a0panel Chairman Lakhdar Brahimi), which recommended, among other reforms, that the UN\u00a0be able to rapidly deploy its forces into conflict zones\u00a0after authorization and be more aggressive in asserting itself.<\/p>\n\n

The\u00a0size of UN peacekeeping\u00a0forces\u00a0again increased<\/a>\u00a0in the 2000s, as their services\u00a0were sought by a growing number of conflict-ridden countries and their neighbors. In\u00a0October 2005, as the number of peacekeepers approached 70,000, Jean-Marie Gu\u00e9henno, then the head of peacekeeping operations,\u00a0warned<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0his forces\u00a0were being overextended, leading to a brief \u201cphase of consolidation<\/a>\u201d in 2010.<\/p>\n\n

Since the start of 2010, however, six new missions have been authorized (including four that today have more than 10,000 peacekeepers), while five have been phased out (of which\u00a0two\u00a0had more than 10,000 troops at their peak). By April 2015, the\u00a0number of uniformed peacekeeping personnel \u2013 which includes troops, police and military advisers \u2013 reached a new high of about 108,000.<\/p>\n\n

Today, UN peacekeeping\u2019s legacy contains a mix of perceived successes (such as in Namibia and Mozambique), failures, and scandals (such as multiple allegations of\u00a0sexual abuse,\u00a0most recently<\/a>\u00a0in the Central African Republic).\u00a0Many of the past challenges also\u00a0remain: In a\u00a02015 internal assessment<\/a>\u00a0by the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations, known\u00a0as the HIPPO report, officials warned: \u201cA number of peace operations today are deployed in an environment where there is little or no peace to keep. \u2026 There is a clear sense of a widening gap between what is being asked of United Nations peace operations today and what they are able to deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s worth noting that peacekeeping\u00a0missions and mandates must\u00a0be unanimously approved\u00a0by all\u00a0permanent members of the Security Council<\/a>, including the U.S. and Russia, a\u00a0constraint that has prevented\u00a0UN intervention in some conflict zones.<\/p>\n\n

\"Most<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

As of January 2016, the\u00a0top contributors<\/a> to peacekeeping forces are Ethiopia (8,326), Bangladesh (8,274), India (7,799) and Pakistan (7,625) \u2013 making up 30% of the total \u2013 followed by other developing and emerging nations, mostly in Africa and Asia. By contrast, European nations supply\u00a0just 6% of total personnel\u00a0contributions. (Brahimi criticized\u00a0this dynamic<\/a> as one\u00a0in which the “rich contribute money and the poor contribute blood.”)<\/p>\n\n

But this wasn’t always the case: In the mid-1990s, when the Balkan states of Europe were riddled with violence and UN peacekeepers were active in the area, European nations \u2013 particularly the UK and France \u2013\u00a0made up the largest shares of total contributions.<\/p>\n\n

In September 2015, President Barack Obama presided over a<\/a>\u00a0UN peacekeeping summit, acknowledging that the “supply of well-trained, well-equipped peacekeepers can\u2019t keep up with the growing demand” and promising renewed support for peace operations, mostly in the form of military experts, training and resources.<\/p>\n\n

The United States’ contributions of UN forces<\/a> peaked at\u00a04,200 in October 1993, the month of\u00a0the “Black Hawk Down”\u00a0firefight\u00a0in Somalia that left\u00a018 Americans dead.\u00a0(It\u00a0was part of a separate U.S.-led mission but was related to UN goals.) At the time, the U.S. was the fourth-largest contributor of peacekeepers, making up 5.6% of the total UN force. But political and public pressure following the Somalia fiasco\u00a0led the U.S. to withdraw its forces from the region in general, and the U.S.’s overall contributions\u00a0have steadily dwindled since. Today, a record low share of UN peacekeepers are from\u00a0the U.S. (just 76\u00a0personnel, or 0.07%).<\/p>\n\n

However,\u00a0the U.S. finances UN peacekeeping more than any other country (it\u2019s charged with 28% of the total budget) \u2013 in accordance to a formula that <\/span>apportions expenses<\/a> based on the relative wealth of each country, among other factors. Japan (10.8%), France (7.2%), Germany (7.1%) and the UK (6.7%) are the other top contributors of funds. <\/span><\/p>\n\n

As recently as\u00a02013, the UN maintained a strong international image:\u00a0A\u00a0global median of 58% across 39 countries saw the UN favorably, compared with a median of 27% who viewed it unfavorably, according to a Pew Research Center survey<\/a>. UN support was highest in the Asia-Pacific and lowest in the Middle East. It was also generally liked in Europe, Africa and Latin America.<\/p>\n\n

\"International<\/a><\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The number of UN peacekeeping forces around the world has peaked in recent months after falling off in the late 1990s, following a period of trial and error for UN 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