With the world facing the highest number of violent conflicts since World War II, and the recent escalation of conflicts in regions like the Middle East, Sudan, and Ukraine, a crucial question often arises: How is the United Nations responding to these crises?
Peace missions – including Peacekeeping Operations (PKOs), Good Office Engagements (GOEs) and Special Political Missions (SPMs) – are one of the main instruments of the UN to promote international peace and security. Since its creation, the UN has established more than 140 missions. However, these missions are increasingly under scrutiny, facing what has been described as a ‘trust deficit’ or a ‘crisis of legitimacy’. Yet, UN peacekeeping is historically more effective than its reputation might suggest. Studies show that peace missions contribute to achieving negative peace, such as lowering battle-related deaths. In regions where peacekeepers are deployed, civilian casualties tend to be significantly lower, underscoring the impact of these interventions.
To inform these ongoing discussions, a team of researchers at the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP) at the Geneva Graduate Institute and the Center for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zurich embarked on a five-year SNSF-research project. The aim was to provide a more nuanced understanding on UN peace missions in a rapidly changing world. They put a particular focus on the evolving mandates of peace missions, resulting in the UN Peace Mission Mandates dataset (UNPMM). Being the most comprehensive mandate dataset to date, the UNPMM documents all UN peace missions established between 1948 and 2023, categorized by type, mandate tasks, context, and start and end dates.
The project’s findings are not only important for researchers, they also have a high policy and practice relevance, not least in the framework of Switzerland’s seat as an elected member of the UN Security Council in the years 2023-24. With additional funding from an SNSF Agora Grant and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, we launched a website (www.peacemissions.info) and mobile applications (Apple Store; Google Play), designed to serve as both quick-reference tools and sources of in-depth information. These platforms are intended for a diverse audience, including policymakers, practitioners, students, and anyone with an interest in the complexities of UN peace missions and their mandates. Additionally, we curated a pop-up exhibition and showed it in several locations in Switzerland, including Geneva, Zurich, Basel, St. Gallen, and Stans, as well as at two international venues in New York and Stockholm. The exhibition aims to engage the public in a dialogue about the role of UN peace missions in contemporary world politics and about Switzerland’s specific engagement related to these missions.
In a rapidly changing global landscape marked by increasing skepticism about the legitimacy and effectiveness of UN peace missions, this project contributed to inform these discussions by translating complex academic research into practical tools. Efforts to engage a broad range of stakeholders have been met with appreciation, highlighting the importance of making research accessible and relevant to policymakers and a wider public. Overall, the project serves as an example of how to bridge research and practice – an indispensable activity, if not responsibility, particularly on topics pertaining to peace and security that concern us all.
Peacekeepers with the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo stand guard in the Province of North Kivu © UN PHOTO/SYLVAIN LIECHTI (UN7324335)
Launch of the exhibition during Geneva Peace Week 2023, co-hosted by the GCSP.