Do too few states contribute to UN peacekeeping?

Alex Bellamy and Paul D. Williams just released a new report assessing which countries contribute to United Nations peacekeeping missions and why. Their analysis is built on a disquieting reality: that a handful of countries provide the bulk of UN peacekeepers. "The task of providing peacekeepers continues to be met in a highly unequal manner ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

Alex Bellamy and Paul D. Williams just released a new report assessing which countries contribute to United Nations peacekeeping missions and why. Their analysis is built on a disquieting reality: that a handful of countries provide the bulk of UN peacekeepers. "The task of providing peacekeepers continues to be met in a highly unequal manner with well over two-thirds of all UN uniformed personnel coming from just twenty or so countries," they write. Many countries contribute only token forces--small numbers of soldiers that don't form a cohesive unit. These contributions, the authors note, are "obviously inefficient from a military perspective."

Alex Bellamy and Paul D. Williams just released a new report assessing which countries contribute to United Nations peacekeeping missions and why. Their analysis is built on a disquieting reality: that a handful of countries provide the bulk of UN peacekeepers. "The task of providing peacekeepers continues to be met in a highly unequal manner with well over two-thirds of all UN uniformed personnel coming from just twenty or so countries," they write. Many countries contribute only token forces–small numbers of soldiers that don’t form a cohesive unit. These contributions, the authors note, are "obviously inefficient from a military perspective."

The UN recognizes that it needs to broaden the base of significant contributors but faces significant headwinds, including financial constraints and newly stringent training requirements. One of the most interesting sections of the report draws on work by Donald C.F. Daniel to identify several countries that are promising candidates for enhanced participation (Mexico and Chile figure prominently). The whole report is worth a close read.

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

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