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CCDP
06 April 2025

CCDP hosted the launch of “Yes, I do: Belligerent consent to UN peace missions,” a new SNSF Starting Grant project

On 27 March, CCDP hosted the project launch led by CCDP faculty associate Sara Hellmüller and postdoc researcher Margaux Pinaud. The team shared project aims and invited feedback as they begin this five-year inquiry into peace mission consent.

The launch marked the beginning of a five-year research project funded by a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Starting Grant awarded to principal investigator Prof. Sara Hellmüller, who recently joined the Graduate Institute as a Research Professor in International Relations and Political Science. She is joined by Dr. Margaux Pinaud, who joined this project in February as a postdoctoral researcher focusing on the development of a new dataset on belligerent consent.

During the session, Prof. Hellmüller and Dr. Pinaud introduced the project’s core aims and phases, while inviting input from participants on how to strengthen the research design and its real-world applications. The event was well attended by faculty, students, and members of Geneva’s policy and peacebuilding community.

About the Project

Peace missions, including good offices engagements (GOEs), special political missions (SPMs), and peacekeeping operations (PKOs), are the main tools of the United Nations (UN) to maintain international peace and security. One of their core principles is consent, denoting the agreement of the belligerents to engage with the peace mission in view of facilitating the achievement of its objectives. Consent is central for peace missions as without the cooperation of the belligerents, they can be severely hampered in the fulfilment of their mandates. 

Yet, despite the wide acknowledgement of the importance of the concept in both research and practice, there is to date no coherent theory on belligerent consent to UN peace missions. Consent remains under-specified, contested, and elusive. The project fills this gap by developing a mid-level theory on belligerent consent to UN peace missions. It explores what consent means and how it manifests in practice, over time, and across peace missions. 

Associated Projects

As the “Yes, I do” project moves forward, the CCDP looks forward to hosting future events, publications, and collaborations that will deepen our understanding of peace missions, the role of consent, and how the UN can better navigate complex political environments in pursuit of sustainable peace.

Follow the research project development here.