05 October 2011

GPPi discusses key challenges of UN peace operations apparatus at French Foreign Office

On October 3, GPPi co-founder and associate director Thorsten Benner discussed core issues with regard to UN peace operations reform at the French foreign office. The meeting was convened by the Direction de la Prospective (Foreign Policy Planning Staff) at the Quai d´Orsay. The workshop was the first launch event for the 2011 book The New World of UN Peace Operations: Learning to Build Peace?, co-authored by Benner with Stephan Mergenthaler and Philipp Rotmann, and published by Oxford University Press.

The meeting brought together representatives from the different parts of the French government involved in UN peace operations. It was chaired by Joseph Maïla, director of the Foreign Policy Planning Staff, and moderated by Emmanuel Lebrun-Damiens, also from the Direction de la Prospective. Alexandra Novosseloff, senior advisor on UN affairs at the French defense ministry, acted as a discussant. The meeting coincided with the first day in office of the new head of the UN Department of Peacekeeping, Hervé Ladsous.

In his remarks, Benner emphasized the need to continue the peace operations reform agenda in terms of investing in the learning infrastructure of the Department of Peace Keeping Operations. If UN member states want to run nimbler, more efficient UN peace operations (with a reduced number of troops deployed), they have to make the whole apparatus “smarter.” This applies in particular to the civilian component of missions that are concerned (among other things) with critical institution-building tasks. Overall, Benner highlighted the need to push forward human resources reform in peacekeeping because problems in this area also affect the learning capacity negatively. A forthcoming GPPi policy paper will elaborate on the peace operations reform agenda.

For further information please contact Thorsten Benner.

Back to: News Archive