In an independent study commissioned by the United Nations Department of Peace Operations (DPO), new models for UN peacekeeping are outlined to address evolving global threats. Commissioned at the request of Germany and other co-chairs of the UN Peacekeeping Ministerial process, this study aims to shape discussions for the upcoming Berlin UN Peacekeeping Ministerial on May 13-14, 2025. The event will center on the theme: "The Future of Peacekeeping."
The study finds that UN peacekeeping remains an effective multilateral tool for preventing and limiting armed conflict, sustaining peace, as well as responding to a broader range of threats to international peace and security. It also reviews security threats and challenges that future peacekeeping missions must address. Among the most important are armed conflict, the weaponization of new and emerging technologies, transnational organized crime, the climate crisis, and public health emergencies, which are combining in complex ways that ignore international political borders.
Looking to the future, fresh thinking is needed about what roles peacekeeping can and should play. The study’s vision for UN peacekeeping is a politically focused, people-centered, modular tool that can unite the Security Council around effective multilateral responses to a broad range of threats and challenges. To support this vision, the study offers 30 plausible models to inform future UN missions. The models describe a mix of longstanding peacekeeping tasks; how those traditional tasks might be performed in different ways in changed contexts and with new technologies; and propose novel activities for future UN peacekeeping.
This study also highlights the need for investments in key capabilities to strengthen current and future peacekeeping missions, irrespective of the precise combination of models and mandates. There are also strong links between peacekeeping and the UN’s broader prevention and peacebuilding agendas, as well as the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, which can be reinforced further.
Peacekeeping Ministerial Co-chairs
The Co-chairs of the Peacekeeping Ministerial process are Bangladesh, Canada, Ethiopia, Ghana, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Republic of Korea, Rwanda, Uruguay, United Kingdom, United States and the United Nations Secretariat.