GPPi reviews controversial restructuring of UN's peacekeeping department

GPPi Associate Director Thorsten Benner and GPPi Research Associate Philipp Rotmann published an article in the current issue of Vereinte Nationen (German Review on the United Nations). The piece reviews the process and results of Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s controversial plan to revamp the institutional backbone of the UN’s peace operations, now numbering over 100,000 soldiers, police officers and civilian experts world-wide.

In the article, entitled ​“Operation Blauhelmreform: Bans umstrittener Umbau der Hauptabteilung für Friedenssicherungseinsätze”, Benner and Rotmann describe the political tug-of-war between the newly elected Secretary-General and member states. They argue that Ban’s initial proposal to split the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) in two pieces and create a new high-level position overseeing the administrative and logistical support for field operations was met with near universal resistance by diplomats.

In subsequent negotiations, Ban dropped large components of his plan and worked out a compromise that combined his core concern, the creation of a new Department of Field Support (DFS) led by an Under-Secretary-General, with two longer-running reform efforts that were met with greater openness on the parts of the Secretariat and member states. On the one hand, the sharp increase in the number and scope of peace operations required a substantial increase in personnel for mission planning, leadership and administration at headquarters in New York. On the other hand, the Secretary-General took up DPKO’s own reform agenda ​“Peace Operations 2010” in proposing a number of new management arrangements as well as additional resources for planning, evaluation and doctrine development.

After over six months of diplomatic wrangling, the General Assembly approved a compromise proposal that primarily provided the necessary budget increase to respond to the recent ​“surge” in peace operations, to effectively support the development of the Secretariat toward a knowledge-based organization and to create for the first-time the funds for systematic evaluations. Beyond that, Ban achieved not more than a face-saving compromise which is largely due to a number of member states who wanted to avoid fatally weakening him this early in his term of office. The new Department of Field Support is being established but its head is effectively subordinated to the Under-Secretary-General of Peacekeeping Operations.

However, Benner and Rotmann argue, the growth of peace operations is not likely to end any time soon, with a new operation mandated for Chad and the Central African Republic and another one being discussed for Somalia. Year-by-year, piecemeal reforms will not be sufficient to meet this challenge — instead, member states will have to face a number of fundamental problems at the core of the current institutional setup of peacekeeping.