Downsizing in UN Peacekeeping: The Impact on Civilian Peacekeepers and the Missions Employing Them

Abstract

After a decade of remarkable growth in the early 2000s, UN peacekeeping has entered a period of sharp contraction. This trend has been especially severe for civilian peacekeepers, who play vital though often neglected roles in UN operations: the number of civilian peacekeeper positions has shrunk by 37% since 2010. This article draws on 164 research interviews and the vast Business literature on downsizing to explore the effects of this contraction of the UN's remaining civilian peacekeepers and the missions that employ them. To conceptualize this impact, the article begins by outlining the contributions a range of civiliansinternational and national staff, UN Volunteers and contractorsmake to UN peacekeeping. Mobilizing insights from Business scholars, it then argues that difficult downsizing processes, high employee commitment, and workforce stratification place UN missions at high risk of 'downsizing survivor syndrome': sustained organizational productivity losses due to decreased individual performance and team coherence. The article then confirms empirically that the nature of UN peacekeeping downsizing, job insecurity, and competition among personnel categories pose profound risks to civilian peacekeeper performance and therefore challenge effective mandate implementation. It also highlights that decreased intermission mobility due to the contraction of UN peacekeeping overall exacerbates this effect. KEYWORDS United Nations; downsizing; civilian peacekeepers; national staff After a decade of remarkable growth in the early 2000s, UN peacekeeping has entered a period of sharp contraction, caused by the closure of longstanding missions in Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire and Haiti, UN member states' demands for disengagement and cost reductions in several ongoing operations, and the Security Council's failure to approve any major new missions since 2014. 1 Between 2015 and 2019, authorized UN peacekeeping expenditures decreased by 21%, uniformed UN peacekeeper deployments by 20.5%, and civilian UN peacekeeping posts by over 24%. 2 Figure 1 illustrates this historic trend.

The future of UN peace operations: Principled adaptation through phases of contraction, moderation, and renewal

“…In addition, the Trump administration used the key role of the United States in the UNSC and 5th Committee of the General Assembly to reduce the overall UN peacekeeping budget by scaling down the size and scope of current missions, and by bringing missions to a close as soon as possible. As a result, between 2015 and 2019 the Trump administration contributed to a 21% contraction of UN peacekeeping expenditure, amounting to approximately $2 billion, which resulted in a 20.5% reduction in uniformed and a 24% reduction in civilian personnel (Coleman, 2021). Complexity theory shows that due to the importance of initial conditions and the influence of path dependencies, flows like the financing of UN peacekeeping, tend to continue for some time even after steps have been taken to interrupt them.…”

Crises no Humanitarismo Multidimensional: As Respostas Reformistas do Pilar de Paz e Segurança da ONU l Crisis on Multidimensional Humanitarianism: The Reformist Responses From The UN Peace and Security Pillar

“…Os mandatos atuais preveem uma larga gama de tarefas, e não podem ser implementados de fato com a limitação de recursos imposta. Mesmo com o crescimento financeiro e militar concreto dos ativos a partir dos anos 1990 (Coleman, 2020), as perspectivas de alargamento do peacekeeping -e da adição de ações de peacebuilding -ultrapassaram enormemente o volume de recursos disponíveis.…”

“…Ao logo dos anos priorizou-se a noção de controle da violência aberta atrelada às ações de proteção física (como o patrulhamento militar) tanto quanto à estabilidade de instituições políticas para levar os Estados à "normalidade política" (Oliveira, 2020). Com o enxugamento expressivo dos componentes civis (Coleman, 2020) e com a integração de agentes privados de segurança (Kaldor, 2018), as operações de paz foram amplamente militarizadas e sujeitas à condução de estratégias de contenção contingente da violência, antes que formuladora de soluções pacíficas duráveis.…”

“…As estruturas de peacekeeping da Organização das Nações Unidas (ONU) enfrentam neste momento notórias crises de legitimidade (Carvalho e Lima, 2020) e financiamento (Coleman, 2020). Ainda que esse processo não seja exclusividade do setor de paz e segurança da Organização, nas operações de paz é possível vislumbrar como bastante clareza o impacto dessa retração, e perceber a contestação de consensos fundamentais atingidos nas últimas três décadas.…”

Responding to the crisis in United Nations peace operations

“…Even before the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, the blue helmets were facing a period of serious retrenchment (Coleman, 2020). From 2015 to 2020, both the UN peacekeeping budget and the number of troops deployed have been reduced by approximately one-fourth (Coleman & Williams, 2021, p. 2;United Nations, 2021).…”