Every Clime, Class and Colour

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the United States of America has been the worlds sole superpower. This unipolar world is what allowed for the influx of UN peacekeeping missions in the 1990s. Optimism for this era was high, and this caused the UN to take on more than it could arguably handle. However, the balance of power is now undergoing considerable change. The world is now experiencing a shift towards a multipolar order. The rise of China has given the United States a rival for the first time in 30 years. But the rise of middle powers is also occurring. States like Turkey and India are also on the ascent as regional players. While the U.S.A. is still the dominant world power, their decline is arguably already underway. The illiberal tendencies of President Donald Trump, and his dismissal of international institutions, speaks to this. Peacekeeping missions, which have been working under a liberal world model, may have to adapt in this changed landscape. The rise of alternate powers also means a rise in alternate values. The liberal peacekeeping model may soon need to adapt to a new era of pragmatic peacekeeping. The liberal democrat state may no longer be able to be the end goal of peace operations (Cassin and Zyla, 2021).

Pragmatic peacekeeping for a multipolar world, would mean a scaling down of UN peace operations. The UN would only act in situations that all states can find common ground on, meaning an era of bare minimum peacekeeping. Pragmatic peacekeeping would see missions with fewer priority areas, and instead focus on the protection of civilians, and conflict management (Cassin and Zyla, 2023). Essentially, missions would be whittled down to the basics. This would have the benefit of creating clear and coherent mandates for missions, and easing coordination between actors with varying concepts, on what constitutes legitimate governance. A larger emphasis would be put on coordinating with regional actors, for both their expertise, and at times, for having similar values or institutions with their neighbour in question. Including these regional players would bolster the relevance of the UN in a post-liberal world order. Other players such as regional organisations, corporations and non-liberal international institutions would also be included in such efforts (Cassin and Zya, 2023). A draw back to this approach, is that regional powers would be able to use, or refuse, missions to their own ends. Currently, only the permanent five of the UNSC have that ability. Starting peace missions could become even more difficult than it is currently. But it may be the only way to ensure the relevance of UN peacekeeping in the coming years.

One problem with current missions is that soldiers are often separated from the civilian population for security reasons. This can create barriers that impedes information exchange and effectiveness. Some UN missions, exclusively, entail troops staying in or near their bases for safety reasons. Some contributing states even exclude their soldiers from taking part in combat. During the mission to South Sudan for instance, Japanese soldiers were prevented from leaving their airport, where they were stationed, so they would not engage in fighting. This was even though Japanese aid workers were then trapped in a hotel nearby (Smith, 2017). Pragmatic peacekeeping would entail more interaction between troops and civil society to overcome this gap. Missions would be higher risk, but more adaptive and context specific. To further this process, changes to training have been suggested, to move from a soldier first model toward a soldier-diplomat one. This would entail training in diplomatic skills to foster normative-flexible collaboration between local and international actors (Cassin and Zyla, 2023). Training in cultural awareness pre deployment would also be necessary, ironically quite a liberal concept. It would allow peacekeepers to better navigate the historical, politics and culture dynamics of the region they are deployed. Ideally, they then would be able to engage with local and regional actors who differ in values and beliefs.

Bibliography

Cassin, Katelyn and Zyla, Benjamin. 2021. “The End of the Liberal World Order and the Future of UN Peace Operations: Lessons Learned.” Global Policy, 12: 455-467.

Cassin, K. and Zyla, B. 2023. “UN Reforms for an Era of Pragmatic Peacekeeping.” Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 17: 294–312.

Smith, Sheila A. 2017. Japan Rearmed. London: Harvard University Press.