Peace Operations Are What States Make of Them: Why Future Evolution is More Likely Than Extinction

“Peace operations are a highly resilient international institution for managing armed conflict. Their resilience derives from what constructivists in International Relations theory call collective intentionality and the malleable constitutive rules that define and structure such missions,” write KATHARINA P. COLEMAN and PAUL D. WILLIAMS in the journal Contemporary Security Policy.

“Despite a range of current constraints, challenges, and crises, peace operations are unlikely to become extinct unless a critical mass of states consistently withdraw material support for them and explicitly denigrate the concept of peace operations itself. 

“We see little evidence that both these things are likely to occur. However, the constitutive rules guiding peace operations are likely to continue to evolve due to ideational and material changes. While the proliferation of actors and mission types makes precise predictions impossible, we expect an evolution both in how various actors define their own peace operations and how these actors relate to each other.”

Katharina P. Coleman & Paul D. Williams (2021) Peace operations are what states make of them: Why future evolution is more likely than extinction, Contemporary Security Policy, DOI: 10.1080/13523260.2021.1882802

Onward to the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030: Will COVID-19 Leave Many Behind?

Onward to the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030: Will COVID-19 leave many behind? | ORF: This paper analyses the impact of the pandemic on the SDGs at a global level and highlights India’s experience. 

The multiple ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the lockdowns imposed by countries as a response, are being felt in sectors ranging from agriculture to healthcare, SOUMYA BHOWMICK writes for New Delhi-based OBSERVER RESEARCH FOUNDATION. 

The global community must now hurdle massive obstacles to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To correctly assess the impact of the pandemic on global sustainability-driven concerns, it is important to understand not only the inter-linkages between the SDGs, but their trade-offs as well. 

This paper analyses the impact of the pandemic on the SDGs at a global level and highlights India’s experience. It outlines the economic fallout of the pandemic across various sectors while underlining the cross-linkages between those sectors and the SDGs. The paper argues that such an understanding can guide the formulation of development policy resolutions.

Soumya Bhowmick, “Onward to the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030: Will COVID-19 leave many behind?” ORF Occasional Paper No. 301, February 2021, Observer Research Foundation.

The US and China at the UN: Global Diplomacy

The US and China at the UN: Global Diplomacy: Insights from Jeffrey Feltman.

MERCY KUO in conversation with Jeffrey Feltman, John C. Whitehead Visiting Fellow in International Diplomacy in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution and former undersecretary for political affairs at the United Nations in New York.

‘Leave No One Behind’ – Five Years Into Agenda 2030: Guidelines for Turning the Concept Into Action

‘Leave no one behind’ – five years into Agenda 2030: guidelines for turning the concept into action: This report discusses the interpretation of the ’leave no one behind’ principle to date, and how to advance the agenda.

The Covid-19 pandemic has stalled global progress on many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including ending extreme poverty by 2030. Inequality is rising and hard-won gains in poverty reduction are being reversed, in rich and poor countries alike. The pandemic has also shone new light on long-standing barriers to progress in reducing inequalities – notably the concentration of persisting deprivations in groups who share certain identities (e.g. age, race or ethnicity, having a disability), places of residence (e.g. remote areas) and/or experiences (e.g. forced migration).

The ‘leave no one behind’ (LNOB) agenda rose to prominence as the Millennium Development Goal era closed. It was increasingly recognised that concentrating policy on outcomes defined by national averages concealed  disparities affecting the poorest groups. The LNOB focus seeks to redress this failure by making progress for these poorest groups central to the realisation of the SDGs. countries pledged through Agenda 2030 ‘that no one will be left behind ... we wish to see the Goals and targets met for all nations and peoples and for all segments of society. And we will endeavor to reach the furthest behind first’.

This report discusses the interpretation of the principle to date, and how to advance the agenda. It is accompanied by an executive summary and an annex containing technical details and context to the main report.

Financing Peacebuilding: The Role of Private-Sector Actors

Financing Peacebuilding: The Role of Private-Sector Actors: What is the role of the private sector in financing peacebuilding? This paper proposes a taxonomy of private-sector actors and principles.

In some circles, it has become customary to think of peacebuilding as a task that should be funded by international organisations such as the United Nations. The costs of peacebuilding activities should then be borne by UN Member States or other multilateral organisations, perhaps acting in unison. In this scenario, the roles or contributions of private-sector actors may seem unclear, or even irrelevant.

And yet, the emerging reality of new funding models for peacebuilding activities suggests that the private sector can and does in fact play a significant role in peacebuilding and sustaining peace. Within the business community, philanthropic concepts such as corporate social responsibility, while complex and somewhat difficult to define, present further evidence that the strict separation between the private and public sectors is no longer valid.

How then do businesses operating in international contexts interact with the UN and other multilateral actors? Can we speak of an emerging ecosystem of private-sector actors and activities that plays a role in sustaining peace? What are the social, diplomatic, and economic implications of private-sector involvement for local communities and relations between states, and inter-state conflict in particular?

This paper provides preliminary answers to these questions, and proposes a taxonomy of private-sector actors and principles. Its main focus is on the international (that is, multinational) private sector and its role in funding peacebuilding initiatives. It argues that, despite the business case for peace, guidance on standards and best practices is still required in order to ensure that private actors contribute positively to peace, rather than merely avoiding conflict or causing harm.

Unpacking How Peacekeeping Affects Violence – What the Data Can Tell Us

Read LISA HULTMAN’S captivating on ZIF TECHPOPS post on how data can help peacekeeping missions better understand how to prioritize, how to make the best use of their resources and justify the allocation of funds and resources. Linking data on peacekeeping deployments and capacities with data on the occurrence of violence irrespective of UN troop presence, it is possible to unpack practical questions on the effectiveness of peacekeeping deployments, especially their impact on conflict dynamics, and even improve general forecasting and prediction.

Unpacking how peacekeeping affects violence – what the data can tell us | ZIF Berlin

Peace Missions as an Element of International Security

Peace missions in the modern world are inextricably linked to the political and social processes taking place in specific regions of the globe.
When looking closer to the more than fifty-year history of international peacekeeping operations, write MARIAN KOPCZEWSKI and JACEK NARLOCH, it should be noted that as time passes, they undergo constant transformations. Their types, goals, and ways of implementation are changing. That is because the environment in which such operations are carried out is changing, they write in ‘Peace missions as an element of international security’, published in the Scientific Journal of the Military University of Land Forces. 
Peace missions are also transforming the goals and priorities of local and international communities. Permanent modification is also subject to threats in the modern world.
The authors note that peace missions are conducted under ever-changing social, economic, and political conditions. “They must be flexible so that they can adapt to new challenges. Success is never guaranteed because the tasks related to maintaining peace are carried out in challenging conditions.” 
The success of the peace mission depends on many factors, such as the composition of the peacekeeping mission (military personnel, police, civilian employees), logistical support, entrusted tasks, and the environment in which the peace mission operates.