“Peacekeeping Proneness”: Which Type of International System Is Most Likely to Enhance the Supply of Peacekeepers?

Abstract

s The Russian invasion of Ukraine has escalated geopolitical rivalry and debate about the demise of the liberal international order and the changing distribution of power within the international system. Peacekeeping has been a key component of the liberal international order at least since the end of the Cold War, if not before. Peacekeeping boomed in the era of US unipolarity, with twenty new United Nations (UN) operations alone launched between 1989 and 1994. At the time of writing, c. 60,000 blue helmets are deployed around the world, and a peacekeeping operation is being mooted for postwar Gaza. Given the growing geopolitical rivalry between East and West, a relative erosion of US power, and much talk of a new age of multipolarity, where does this leave peace operations and peacekeeping? This paper explores the impact of different distributions of power in the international system (namely, multipolarity, bipolarity, and unipolarity) on peace operations. The paper goes through relevant military interventions beginning with the post-1815 Congress system and reaching up to the present day. The paper shows that a multipolar distribution of power is most propitious for the global deployment of peacekeepers, and suggests that peace operations may in future express international cooperation more than unipolar power.