Tough Lessons for UN Peacekeeping OperationsThe Political Economy of Civil War and UN Peace Operations, Mats Berdal and Jake Sherman (eds). Abingdon: Routledge, 2023. £34.99/$44.95. 350 pp.

Abstract

AbstractWith the future of UN peacekeeping once again up for debate, it’s worth reflecting on the lessons of the past 30 years. UN operations in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali and elsewhere have had to contend with complex local and regional systems of power and governance that have major influences on missions’ prospects for success. In The Political Economy of Civil War and UN Peace Operations, Mats Berdal and Jake Sherman pull together an excellent set of essays that identify the signal lessons of UN peacekeeping in dealing with these systems, and offer a credible set of policy prescriptions. The book makes a compelling case for a better understanding of the political economy of conflict, and less expansive mission mandates that are attuned to the local context.Key words: Africacounter-insurgencygovernanceorganised-crime networkspolitical economyUN peacekeepingUN reformUnited Nations Notes1 See UN Security Council, ‘Resolution 2666’, 20 December 2022, paras 38–42, https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/S_RES_2666.pdf; and UN Security Council, ‘Resolution 2659’, 14 November 2022, para 58, https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N22/691/48/PDF/N2269148.pdf?OpenElement.2 See Mats Berdal, Building Peace After War (Abingdon: Routledge, 2009), pp. 173–5; Christine Cheng, Jonathan Goodhand and Patrick Meehan, ‘Synthesis Paper: Securing and Sustaining Elite Bargains that Reduce Violent Conflict’, UK Stabilisation Unit, April 2018, p. 4, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/765882/Elite_Bargains_and_Political_Deals_Project_-_Synthesis_Paper.pdf; and Elizabeth Cousens and Chetan Kumar (eds), Peacebuilding as Politics: Cultivating Peace in Fragile Societies (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2001), p. 187.3 See Severine Autesserre, Peaceland: Conflict Resolution and the Everyday Politics of International Intervention (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), p. 249.4 See Stathis Kalyvas, The Logic of Violence in Civil War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 388–91.5 Cheng, Goodhand and Meehan, ‘Synthesis Paper: Securing and Sustaining Elite Bargains that Reduce Violent Conflict’, p. 20.6 See Alex de Waal, The Real Politics of the Horn of Africa: Money, War and the Business of Power (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2015).7 See Sarah von Billerbeck and Oisin Tansey, ‘Enabling Autocracy? Peacebuilding and Post-conflict Authoritarianism in the Democratic Republic of Congo’, European Journal of International Relations, vol. 25, no. 3, 2019, pp. 698–722; and Adam Day and Charlie T. Hunt, ‘A Perturbed Peace: Applying Complexity Theory to UN Peacekeeping’, International Peacekeeping, vol. 30, no. 1, 2023.8 See, for example, ‘One Dead in Fresh Anti-UN Mission Protests in Eastern DR Congo’, Al-Jazeera, 6 September 2022, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/6/one-dead-in-fresh-anti-un-mission-protests-in-eastern-dr-congo#.9 See Lisa Hultman, Jacob Kathman and Megan Shannon, ‘Beyond Keeping Peace: United Nations Effectiveness in the Midst of Fighting’, American Political Science Review, vol. 108, no. 4, November 2014, pp. 737–53; and Barbara F. Walter, Lise Morje Howard and V. Page Fortna, ‘The Extraordinary Relationship Between Peacekeeping and Peace’, British Journal of Political Science, vol. 51, no. 4, 2021, pp. 1,705–22.10 See Mats Berdal and David Shearer, ‘Hard Lessons from South Sudan’, Survival, vol. 63, no. 5, October– November 2021, pp. 69–96.11 Cedric de Coning, ‘How Not to Do UN Peacekeeping: Avoid the Stabilization Dilemma with Principled and Adaptive Mandating and Leadership’, Global Governance, vol. 29, no. 2, 2023, p. 157.12 They include SAMIM in northern Mozambique, the ECOWAS missions in Gambia and Guinea-Bissau, and MNJTF in northern Nigeria.13 See Ian Martin, ‘All Peace Operations Are Political: A Case for Designer Missions and the Next UN Reform’, in Richard Gowan (ed.), Review of Political Missions 2010 (New York: Center on International Cooperation, 2010), pp. 8–14.14 Christine Bell and Jan Pospisil, ‘Navigating Inclusion in Transitions from Conflict: The Rise of the Political Unsettlement’, Journal of International Development, vol. 29, no. 5, July 2017, pp. 576–93.15 See United Nations, ‘Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations’ (also known as the ‘The Brahimi Report’), A/55/305–S/2000/809, 21 August 2000, paras 63 onwards, https://peacekeeping.un.org/sites/default/files/a_55_305_e_brahimi_report.pdf.16 See Alexandra Novoselloff and Lisa Sharland, ‘Partners and Competitors: Forces Operating in Parallel to UN Peace Operations’, International Peace Institute, November 2019, https://www.ipinst.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/IPI-Rpt-Partners-and-Competitors.pdf.17 See United Nations, ‘Report of the Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea Pursuant to Security Council Resolution 2060’, S/2013/413, 12 July 2013, https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N13/361/85/PDF/N1336185.pdf?OpenElement.18 See, for example, Richard Gowan, ‘Major Power Rivalry and Multilateral Conflict Management’, Discussion Paper Series on Managing Global Disorder No. 8, Council on Foreign Relations, December 2021, https://cdn.cfr.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/Gowan_MajorPowerRivalry_0.pdf.Additional informationNotes on contributorsAdrian JohnsonAdrian Johnson is a Research Analyst and head of the Multilateral Research Group in the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO). The views expressed here are the author’s own, and do not reflect those of the FCDO or the UK government.