Photograph: UN Photo

Support to UN Peace Operations: Ensuring More Effective UN Peace Operations (UNPO)

2017 - 2021 (Ongoing)
Research Project
The aim of this project is to strengthen the ability of UN peace operations to respond to global security challenges and improve their effectiveness.

This aim is subdivided in two key intended outcomes:

a) Increased capacity to analyze and respond to global security challenges; and 
b) Enhanced effectiveness of UN peace operations.

The project will address key challenges facing the UN, and that are of particular concern to Norway, including strategic analysis and planning, programmatic funding, civil affairs – including confidence building efforts and conflict management, strategic partnerships, international policing, transnational organised crime, violent extremism, youth and gender.

Funding program

The project is funded by the Norwegian MFA

Articles

News

What's next for the Women, Peace and Security Agenda (WPS)?

October 29, 2020

2020 marks the 20th anniversary of Security Council Resolution 1325. But the important Women, Peace and Security agenda seem to have had a backlash in recent years. 

News
Bildet viser en FN-soldat i Mali

Four global transformations are changing UN peace operations

October 23, 2018

The global order is changing – how will that uncertainty impact UN peace operations?

News
Bildet viser en FN-soldat i Mali

New book: UN Peace Operations in a Changing Global Order

October 23, 2018

In this book launch interview, editors Mateja Peter and Cedric de Coning reflect upon findings from their most recent book, identifying four global transformations and their implications for UN peace operations.

News

WORLD PEACEKEEPING DAY: UN Peacekeeping at 70

May 28, 2018

UN peacekeeping faces significant challenges and some question whether it can remain relevant, but most countries agree on the importance of the UN as the centrepiece of global governance, and that peacekeeping is its flagship enterprise.

Publications

Publication : Academic article

The future of UN peace operations: Principled adaptation through phases of contraction, moderation, and renewal

2021
This article considers the future of UN peace operations through a complexity theory lens. In the short-term peacekeeping will have to adapt to the consequences ...
Publication : Academic article

UN peace operations in a multipolar order: Building peace through the rule of law and bottom-up approaches

2021
UN peace operations need a new peacebuilding agenda that acknowledges both the transboundary nature of conflict drivers and the multipolar nature of the ...
Publication : Report

Performance of Peace Operations

2020
How should we assess and improve the performance of peace operations? This is the topic of the third dialogue strand of VCAF20. UN peace operations are ...
Publication : Report

Security Council Resolution 1325 at 20: What Next for the Women Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda?

2020
  • Eli Stamnes
This policy brief takes stock of the achievements of the WPS agenda since the passing of its founding Security Resolution 1325, twenty years ago. It outlines ...
Publication : Report

COVID-19 will change the way the UN conducts peacekeeping operations in the future

2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted UN peacekeeping operations. In the short-term, activities have been reduced to the most critical, rotations ...
Publication : Report

The impact of COVID-19 on the performance of peace operations

2020
Between the African Union, European Union, OSCE, NATO and United Nations there are approximately 160,000 civilian, police and military personnel deployed ...
Publication : Popular scientific article

The Impact of COVID-19 on Peace Operations

2020
A few weeks ago, peace operations across the world began swiftly adapting to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 disease. Missions have been forced to ...
Publication : Report

Unity in Goals, Diversity in Means - and the discourse on female peacekeepers in UN peace operations.

2020
Gender parity at all levels in the UN, as a means towards gender equality, is a two-decades old commitment, reflecting core values as old as the UN itself. ...
Publication : Report

Preventing Organized Crime. The Need for a Context-Sensitive, System-Wide Approach.

2020
Recent years have seen important developments regarding the UN Security Council and the UN Secretariat. The Security Council, which has increasingly recognized ...
Publication : Report

Female Peacekeepers and Operational Effectiveness in UN Peace Operations.

2020
More women are needed in UN peace operations, both on the grounds of equality and performance. March 2020 survey data and empirical evidence from the ...
Publication : Report

The Impact of Covid-19 on the Women, Peace and Security Agenda.

2020
• Women appear to be disproportionately affected by Covid-19 • Pushback on global commitment to gender equality • Gender equality and human development ...
Publication

WPS and Female Peacekeepers

2019
The chapter provides an overview of the participation of female peacekeeping personnel in UN missions, tracing key target and agenda- setting policy events, ...
Publication : Feature article

How UN Peacekeeping Operations Can Adapt to a New Multipolar World Order

2019
How will United Nations peacekeeping operations adapt to the transition from a unipolar to a multipolar world order? The paper considers emerging dynamics ...
Publication : ARTIKKEL

Predictive Peacekeeping: Strengthening Predictive Analysis in UN Peace Operations

2019
The UN is becoming increasingly data-driven. Until recently, data-driven initiatives have mainly been led by individual UN field missions, but with António ...
Publication : ANTOLOGI

United Nations Peace Operations in a Changing Global Order

2019
This edited volume generates a discussion about UN approaches to peace by studying challenges and opportunities that the organisation is facing in the ...
Publication

Assessing the Effectiveness of the United Nations Mission in Mali (MINUSMA)

2019
This report assesses the extent to which the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) is achieving its current strategic ...
Publication : ARTIKKEL_POP

Complexity thinking and adaptive peacebuilding

2019
Cedric de Coning explores how complexity thinking can contribute to our understanding of how to create more inclusive peace processes, and how adaptive ...
Publication : ARTIKKEL

The Joint Force of the G5 Sahel: An Appropriate Response to Combat Terrorism?

2018
The Joint Force of the Group of Five of the Sahel reflects the commitment of African states to cooperate to address common security challenges. Yet, little ...
Publication

Towards a Comprehensive Results-based Reporting and Performance Assessment Framework for UN Peacekeeping Operations

2018
This report considers the tools and processes that DPKO and DFS currently use to assess the performance of senior personnel, individual units and peacekeeping ...
Publication

Review of the Global Focal Point for Police, Justice and Security 2018

2018
In December 2017, an independent Review of the Global Focal Point (GFP) arrangement was commissioned to inform GFP partners, Member States and other stakeholders ...
Publication : NUPI Policy Brief

Predictive peacekeeping: opportunities and challenges

2018
The time is ripe for the development of a UN early warning tool that estimates the likelihood of instability, intercommunity clashes and armed violence ...
Publication : NUPI Report

Researching the Effectiveness of Peace Operations, Seminar Report, 31 May – 1 June, Oslo

2017
The African Union (AU), European Union (EU), and United Nations (UN) are under increasing pressure to justify the effectiveness of the peace operations ...
Publication : NUPI Policy Brief

Plug and Play: Multinational Rotation Contributions for UN Peacekeeping Operations

2017
In January 2016, Norway deployed a C-130 military transport aircraft to the UN mission in Mali (MINUSMA). Given the number of attacks on patrols and logistics ...
Publication : ANTOLOGI

Rising Powers and Peacebuilding: Breaking the Mold

2017
This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This edited volume examines the policies and practices of rising powers on peacebuilding. It analyzes ...
Publication : ARTIKKEL

Peace Enforcement in Africa: Doctrinal distinctions between the African Union and United Nations

2017
When the United Nations (UN) Security Council needs to authorize a peace enforcement operation in Africa, its partner of choice is the African Union (AU). ...
Publication : NUPI Working Paper

Measuring the Success of Peace Operations: Directions in Academic Literature

2016
  • Mateja Peter
This background paper examines how the academic literature has approached the question of success in peace operations. Here it should be noted that many ...

Project Manager

Themes
Peace operations  Security policy  Terrorism and extremism  Conflict  Governance  Diplomacy  Foreign policy  International organizations  United Nations  Africa  The Middle East and North Africa  AU
Participants

John Karlsrud

Research Professor, Head of the Research group on peace, conflict and development

 

Eli Stamnes

Former employee

Jenny Nortvedt

Former employee

Events
Tue 28 May 2019
Event
Time: 09:30 Europe/Oslo
Location: NUPI

What is the impact of the UN missions in Mali and South Sudan?

On the occasion of the International Day of Peacekeeping, NUPI has the pleasure of inviting you to a seminar with a focus on the effectiveness of the UN missions in Mali and South Sudan.

Sun 25 Nov 2018
Event
Time: 10:00 Europe/Oslo
Location: NUPI

How effective have the peace operations in Somalia, DR Congo and Mali been?

Experts from around the world will take a closer look at how effective UN Peace Operations actually are.

Tue 13 Nov 2018
Event
Time: 12:30 Europe/Oslo
Location: NUPI

UN Peace Operations in a Changing Global Order

Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix will talk about the status of UN Peace Operations.

Tue 14 Mar 2017
Event
Time: 12:30 Europe/Oslo
Location: NUPI

UN Peacekeeping doctrine in a new era

What relevance does UN peacekeeping have for conflict management today? NUPI has the pleasure of inviting you to a seminar and panel discussion about the new book “UN Peacekeeping doctrine in a new era”, co-edited by two of NUPI's researchers.

Mon 16 Jan 2017
Event
Time: 13:00 Europe/Oslo
Location: NUPI

Challenges and opportunities for the UN in 2017 and beyond

António Guterres is the new UN Secretary-General, President-elect Donald Trump is about to enter The White House, the world is witness to a range of big conflicts. How should the UN move from here?