Dynamic geopolitical shifts directly impact European countries’ perceptions of, and re-engagement with, UN peacekeeping, while broader international security threats are likely to influence how Europe engages with UN peacekeeping in the coming years.

In this context, the International Peace Institute’s (IPI) 2018 Vienna Seminar examined diverse perspectives on present and future European engagement in UN peacekeeping. It assessed lessons and experiences that could help better understand Europeans’ collective impact on the effectiveness of UN operations and strived to identify different roles European countries can assume in supporting the UN to tackle contemporary challenges across peacekeeping.

The 2018 seminar marked the forty-eighth iteration of IPI’s annual event and built upon the Vienna Seminar’s legacy of grappling with pressing concerns for UN peacekeeping. Participants discussed a range of interconnected issues concerning European engagement in UN peacekeeping, ranging from examining the nature of contemporary peacekeeping operations and the impact of global and European geopolitical shifts to identifying the modalities and impact of recent European contributions to specific UN missions.