Peacekeeping Works
Posted Thursday, 5 Feb 2015 by Håvard Hegre, Lisa Hultman & Håvard Mokleiv Nygård
An assessment of the effectiveness of UN peacekeeping operations
The increase in the deployment of UN ‘blue helmets’ is a key driver of the gradual decline in the number and severity of armed conflicts worldwide since the mid-1990s. This brief summarizes a study that assesses the complete, long-term effectiveness of UN peacekeeping operations. It shows a remarkably strong combined effect of UN operations’ ability to contain the lethality of wars as well as preventing them from reerupting or spreading.
- Peacekeeping reduces the level of violence in conflict
- Peacekeeping decreases the duration of conflict
- Peacekeeping increases the longevity of peace
- An ambitious but feasible UN peacekeeping policy would reduce wars by two thirds compared to a reversal to a Cold War situation
- In short, peacekeeping works
Read more in the new Policy Brief from the Conflict Trends Project at PRIO.
