Rethinking UN Peacekeeping Burden-Sharing in a Time of Global Disorder

Abstract

When United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres diagnosed the world with a bad case of ‘trust deficit disorder’ in 2018, UN peacekeeping seemed to have been somewhat sheltered from an increasingly chaotic world order. In September 2018, more than 150 member states signed a Declaration of Shared Commitments on UN Peacekeeping Operations (A4P). But a year later, however, on the eve of the organization’s 75th anniversary, what remains the most visible conflict management tool at the disposal of the Security Council is seeing fault lines widening. The traditional consensus over peacekeeping is eroding. Burden-sharing between those countries who, respectively, mandate, finance, and provide peacekeepers has become ever more complex in a context of an increasingly divided Council and new financial crises. Peacekeeping visions have grown further apart as some member states push for more militarized stabilization and protection of civilians approaches when others call for a return to the core principles of peacekeeping. The author concludes that despite these fault lines, peacekeeping remains a remarkable enterprise of multilateralism through which trust and solidarity between member states can be reinforced. This at the condition that greater emphasis be put when carrying out necessary reforms on a more just and equitable burden-sharing—among the P5, between the P5 and ten elected members of the Council, and between the Council and Troop Contributing Countries—and on rebuilding consensus and coherence both in New York and in field missions.