During the November 7th UN Security Council ministerial open debate on “peace operations facing asymmetrical threats” under the presidency of His Excellency Mr. Mankeur Ndiaye, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Senegalese Abroad of Senegal, Mr. Arthur Boutellis, Director of IPI Brian Urquhart Center for Peace Operations briefed the Council.
His remarks drew from the publication, “Waging Peace: UN Peace Operations Confronting Terrorism and Violent Extremism,” co-authored by Arthur Boutellis and Naureen Chowdhury Fink, and produced by IPI and the Global Center on Cooperative Security.
Addressing the Council, Arthur Boutellis emphasized that the “added value of the United Nations” is in “greater investment in preventive, multi-stakeholder strategies.” It is not sustainable for the UN to solely focus on “symptoms rather than causes,” he said.
As the report shows, of the eleven countries most affected by terrorism and other asymmetrical threats globally, seven currently host UN peace operations, ranging from small special political missions to larger peacekeeping operations.
The report seeks to expand the scope of the discussions beyond whether peace operations can adapt to asymmetrical threats environments, to how they can better implement their mandate and support national governments and local communities in the face of terrorism and violent extremism.
In conclusion, Arthur Boutellis called for this “timely” thematic debate to “help this organization develop a more strategic and integrated approach to waging and sustaining peace rather than only perfecting an instrument to better manage the symptoms of asymmetrical threats.”
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