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Sharing the Burden: Lessons from the European Return to Multidimensional Peacekeeping

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World
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IPI
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ARTHUR BOUTELLIS AND MICHAEL BEARY

Executive Summary

Since 2013, after years of near absence from the continent, a number of European countries, along with Canada, have again deployed to UN peacekeeping missions in Africa. The European presence in UN peacekeeping in Africa is now nearly at its largest since the mid-1990s. Overall, however, European countries still only contribute about 8 percent of UN peacekeepers globally, and less than 40 percent of these are deployed in Africa.

For European states, the decision to deploy troops to UN missions is first and foremost a political decision based on national interests and values.

Other factors driving European deployments include Security Council bids, the NATO drawdown in Afghanistan, and peer pressure from other countries. European countries are more likely to contribute troops when they receive political support from other countries, can deploy alongside one another, and have confidence in a mission’s leadership.

Most European states contributing to peacekeeping in Africa have deployed high-end, low-risk capabilities for short periods of time. This is evident in Mali, where European states have favored capabilities such as peacekeeping intelligence, special forces, and air assets. An exception is the Portuguese quick-reaction force in the Central African Republic—seen by many as “the best case” of a European contribution—which has been more willing to use force and does not have an end date for its deployment. The UK has also adopted a different approach in South Sudan, deploying more modest capabilities that it then handed over to non-European countries.

The return of European states and Canada to UN peacekeeping in Africa has come with challenges for all involved. Interviewees from these countries highlighted ten main issues: their mistrust of UN command and control, particularly of military utility helicopters; the inadequacy of medical guarantees; the lack of professional peacekeeping intelligence; the lack of clarity on tasks and end dates; the slowness of UN processes for agreeing on deployments; the underuse of their assets and skills; the UN’s lack of proactive and inclusive planning; the difficulty of meeting the target for female peacekeepers; cost considerations; and insufficient support for strategic communication to domestic audiences. Nonetheless, most agreed that these challenges were surmountable.

Among UN officials interviewed, the value of European and Canadian contributions was universally recognized: their contingents and staff officers are professional, well-trained, and well-equipped, and the military capabilities they provide come with financial and political support. However, many raised the operational challenges posed by these contributions: European and Canadian troops often are reluctant to leave their bases due to risk-aversion and “caveats,” sometimes lack a clear understanding of UN command and control, and tend to be deployed for short periods of time, which disrupts continuity. Another source of frustration is that European and Canadian contingents are sometimes treated differently than those from other countries. Nonetheless, feedback from non-European troop contributors in field missions was generally positive.

The UN Secretariat could take a number of actions to overcome these challenges and improve future contributions from European countries and Canada:

  1. Build peacekeeping operations around first-class medical systems;

  2. Focus on improving processes for casualty evacuation;

  3. Strengthen the UN’s capacity to foster partnerships among troop-contributing countries;

  4. Engage Europe strategically and politically;

  5. Be flexible and make European contributors (and others) feel included in planning;

  6. Continue educating European contributors about UN peacekeeping;

  7. Do not limit engagement with European contributors to high-end capabilities;

  8. Ensure European contributors adhere to UN standards; and

  9. Encourage European contributors to commit to longer deployments.