Over the past 70 years, more than one million troops from more than 110 nations have participated in 70 UN peacekeeping missions. It is a remarkable achievement, but at a time when multilateral institutions are increasingly asked to justify their relevance, the future of peace operations is less certain. The global order is changing and this uncertainty has profound implications on the world’s biggest international organisation and its flagship activity. This roundtable generates a discussion about UN approaches to peace by analysing challenges and opportunities that the UN is facing in the changing global order. Participants will collectively grapple with the following dilemmas: How is the rebalancing of relations between states of the global North and the global South impacting UN decision making? How is the rise of regional organisations as providers of peace impacting the primacy of UN peace operations? How have violent extremism and fundamentalist non-state actors changed the nature of international responses and what does this mean for previously advanced longer-term approaches to conflict resolution? How are demands from non-state actors for greater emphasis on human security impacting the UN’s credibility, and is the UN even able to prioritise people-centered approaches over state-centered ones?

Mats Berdal is Professor of Security and Development in the Department of War Studies and Director of the Conflict, Security and Development Research Group (CSDRG) at King’s College London. Between 2000 and 2003 he was the Director of Studies at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). From 2015 to 2016, Berdal served on the Norwegian Commission of Inquiry on Afghanistan set up to evaluate Norway’s military, humanitarian, and civilian involvement in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2014. His publications include: “Realism as an unsentimental intellectual temper: Lawrence Freedman and the New Interventionism” (in: Benedict Wilkinson and James Gow (eds.) The Art of Creating Power – Freedman on Strategy, Hurst & Co, 2017), The State of UN Peacekeeping – Lessons from Congo (Journal of Strategic Studies 39, 2016), UN Peacekeeping and the Responsibility to Protect (in William Maley and Ramesh Thakur (eds.) Theorising the Responsibility to Protect, CUP, 2015), Building Peace After War (Routledge, 2009), United Nations Interventionism, 1991-2004 (co-edited with Spyros Economides, CUP, 2007), The UN Security Council and Peacekeeping (in Vaughan Lowe et al. (eds.) The Security Council and War, OUP, 2008), Greed and Grievance: Economic Agendas in Civil Wars (co-edited with David Malone, Lynne Rienner, 2000), Disarmament and Demobilisation after Civil Wars (OUP/IISS, 1996). 

Cedric de Coning is a Senior Research Fellow with the Peace, Conflict and Development Research Group at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), where he also co-convenes the NUPI Center on UN and Global Governance. He is also a Senior Advisor for the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) and he has served in various advisory positions in the African Union and United Nations, including to the High Representative of the African Union Peace Fund, the head of the AU’s Peace Support Operations Division, and on the UN Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund Advisory Group. He holds a PhD in Applied Ethics from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. Recent edited books include the BRICS and coexistence (Routledge, 2015); the future of African peace operations (Zed Books, 2016); UN peacebuilding (Routledge, 2016); complexity and peacebuilding (Palgrave, 2016); UN peace operations doctrine (Routledge, 2017), and rising powers and peacebuilding (Palgrave, 2017).

Ian Martin Ian Martin was the Executive Director of Security Council Report in New York from 2015 to 2018. He served as a member of the High Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations (HIPPO) appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, which reported in June 2015. He has headed United Nations missions in several countries, most recently as Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Libya and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) 2011-12. His previous senior UN appointments include Head of the Headquarters Board of Inquiry into certain incidents in the Gaza Strip; Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Nepal; Special Envoy for Timor-Leste; Representative in Nepal of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General in the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea; Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the East Timor Popular Consultation; Chief of the UN Human Rights Field Operation in Rwanda; and Director for Human Rights of the International Civilian Mission in Haiti. He also served in the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina as Deputy High Representative for Human Rights. He was Secretary General of Amnesty International (1986-92) and Vice President of the International Center for Transitional Justice (2002-05).

Mateja Peter is Lecturer at University of St. Andrews, where she co-directs the Centre for Global Constitutionalism. She is also Senior Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI). Peter obtained her PhD from Cambridge University and subsequently held post-doctoral positions at research institutes in Washington, Berlin and Oslo. Her recent peer-reviewed articles appear in Third World Quarterly, Global Governance, and Cambridge Review of International Affairs. Peter works at the intersection of international relations and law, researching on global governance and international organisations, peace operations and peacebuilding. Previously, she led a project providing research support to the UN High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations. She has extensive field experience and has recently done work in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Darfur. She is currently finalising a book on international authority in statebuilding.