On January 1, 2019, a far-reaching reform of the UN development system went into effect. This was referred to by the deputy secretary-general as “the most ambitious reform of the United Nations development system in decades.” While this reform has only briefly been in place, questions have already arisen about its implementation and implications.This issue […]
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The UN is currently facing its most challenging financial situation in nearly two decades. Despite taking emergency measures to reduce spending, the UN Secretariat’s severe liquidity problems have been getting progressively worse, to the point where they are starting to affect the UN’s ability to carry out its mandates. The main cause of this crisis […]
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Since first deployed in 1960, United Nations police (UNPOL) have consistently been present in UN missions and have become increasingly important to achieving mission objectives. Since 1999, these objectives have often included the protection of civilians (POC), especially in places like the Central African Republic, Darfur, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, and South […]
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Since 2013, after years of near absence from the continent, a number of European countries, along with Canada, have again deployed to UN peacekeeping missions in Africa. The European presence in UN peacekeeping in Africa is now nearly at its largest since the mid-1990s. These countries provide much-needed high-end capabilities, as well as political and […]
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“Those of us seeking to be active supporters of the UN over many years and decades understand very well that the system itself is under challenge, multilateralism as a concept of governance is under deep challenge,” IPI Chair Kevin Rudd told a United Nations event organized by IPI and the Office of the President of […]
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UN peacekeeping missions are facing cash-flow problems and financial strains due to the late payment and withholding of assessed contributions. Since the inception of UN peacekeeping, the financing of missions has been a challenge, with periods of calm followed by periods of crisis. The UN has been particularly vulnerable to withheld and late payments from […]
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Secretary-General António Guterres launched the Action for Peacekeeping initiative (A4P) in March 2018 to galvanize member states to commit to peacekeeping and to translate statements of high-level political support into concrete actions. Since then, member states have signed a “Declaration of Shared Commitments on UN Peacekeeping Operations” in which they agree to adapt peacekeeping operations […]
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Partnerships are critical to effective UN peacekeeping, particularly in New York, where the Security Council, the Secretariat, and member states examine proposed reforms and seek consensus on the direction of peacekeeping. Yet throughout the nearly seventy-year history of UN peacekeeping, relations among key stakeholders have frequently fractured due to their often diverging interests. These differences […]
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UN peace operations are confronting crises from all sides: they face ever more complex operating environments in the field, while in New York they face divisions among member states over the very nature of peace operations, a “peacekeeping fatigue” aggravated by scandals, and cuts to the peacekeeping budget. These are some of the reasons why, […]
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From September 3–5, 2017, IPI convened its annual Salzburg Forum on the theme “Mapping the New Geopolitics, Prisoners of Geography or Lords of the Land?”The meeting brought together former prime ministers and foreign ministers, officials from the United Nations and regional organizations, diplomats, journalists, academics, experts on the Middle East and Europe, and representatives of […]
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Daisuku Higashi, a professor at Sophia University in Tokyo, on the state of the peace process in South Sudan and the impact that the political transition in Sudan is having on its…
The global, swift, and devastating nature of the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates the need to finally put the nexus theory into practice, both for this crisis and…
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The International Peace Institute is an independent, international not-for-profit think tank with a staff representing more than 20 nationalities, located in New York across from United Nations headquarters. IPI is dedicated to promoting the prevention and resolution of conflicts between and within states by strengthening international peace and security institutions. To achieve its purpose, IPI employs a mix of policy research, convening, publishing and outreach.
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