Peacekeeping After the Brahimi Report: Is There a Crisis of Credibility for the UN?

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The Brahimi Report was commissioned by the UN Secretary‐General to address the past weaknesses and failures of the UN with regard to peace and security; it met an overwhelmingly favourable response from states and has been followed by a mass of other reports and meetings. This article focuses on two recommendations of the Brahimi Report that have been identified as central to the reform of UN peacekeeping: first, the need for clear, credible and achievable mandates and second, the need for improved consultation and co‐operation with troop‐contributing countries. These apparently simple requirements raise fundamental questions about the nature of peacekeeping and the role of the UN Security Council. The recent experience of the UN in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo illustrates the difficulties in the implementation of the Brahimi recommendations. The ‘commitment gap’ between the undertakings of states in Security Council Resolutions and the resources they are actually prepared to devote to a UN operation remains a crucial problem. Securing a clear chain of command over peacekeeping forces and developing adequate mechanisms for troop‐contributing countries to participate in the formulation of peacekeeping mandates also raise questions about the division of power between the Security Council and troop‐contributors.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: