T In review of a new and soul searching book by a critically important yet largely unknown actor on the world stage, the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) held a seminar on the issue called  “UN Peace Operations in a Changing Global Order”. The event was chaired by Ulf Sverdrup, NUPI Director in mid-November with a panel of four speakers including the headliner: Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the acting Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations worldwide. Here is a good description written up for the event invite:

Peacekeeping is one of the most effective tools available to the United Nations in the promotion and maintenance of international peace and security. Yet peacekeeping faces several challenges that undermine its ability to deliver on its mandates. Political solutions are often absent, and missions seem to have mandates that lack focus and clear priorities. Complex threats in several environments are causing a rise in fatalities and injuries of peacekeepers, and missions have sometimes lacked the personnel and equipment to meet these threats. Peacekeeping operations have also faced challenges in delivering on protection mandates and in contributing to long-term, sustainable peace, and in achieving coherence with other actors operating in the same contexts.

To respond to these challenges, the UN Secretary-General launched Action for Peacekeeping (A4P) to renew mutual political commitment to peacekeeping operations. The Secretary-General has called on Member States to join him in developing a set of mutually-agreed principles and commitments to create peacekeeping operations fit for the future, with the goal of reaching a formal agreement by the end of 2018.

This open access book explores how UN peace operations are adapting to four transformational trends in the changing global order: (1) the rebalancing of relations between states of the global North and the global South; (2) the rise of regional organisations as providers of peace; (3) the rise of violent extremism and fundamentalist non-state actors; and (4) increasing demands from non-state actors for greater emphasis on human security. It identifies emerging conflict and peace and puts them in the context of tectonic shifts in the global order.

Speakers included:

• Jean-Pierre Lacroix: Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations
• Cedric de Coning: Author and Senior Research Fellow at NUPI
• Mateja Peter: Author and Senior Research Fellow at NUPI

The seminar lasted about an hour and thirty minutes. Take a look!!