UN at War: Peace Operations in a New Era

This book is a critical political and institutional reflection on UN peace operations, providing constructive suggestions for how the UN and the international system can evolve to remain relevant and tackle the peace and security challenges of the 21st century. It analyzes the evolving politics of UN peace operations, the move towards peace enforcement and counter-terrorism, and the challenge of making reform efforts anchored in a desire to improve the lives of people suffering in conflicts.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 204 pages
Publication date: 06 December 2017
Publisher: Springer International Publishing AG

This book is a critical political and institutional reflection on UN peace operations. It provides constructive suggestions as to how the UN and the international system can evolve to remain relevant and tackle the peace and security challenges of the 21^st century, without abandoning the principles that the UN was founded upon and on which the legitimacy of UN peace operations rests. The author analyses the evolving politics on UN peace operations of the five veto powers of the UN Security Council, as well as major troop-contributing countries and western powers. He investigates the move towards peace enforcement and counter-terrorism, and what consequences this development may have for the UN. Karlsrud issues a challenge to practitioners and politicians to make sure that the calls for reform are anchored in a desire to improve the lives of people suffering in conflicts on the ground—and not spurred by intra-organizational turf battles or solely the narrow self-interests of member states. Finally, he asks how the UN can adapt its practices to become more field- and people-centered, in line with its core, primary commitments of protecting and serving people in need.

Weight: 302g
Dimension: 149 x 210 x 14 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9783319628578
Edition number: 1st ed. 2018