The United Nations’ modernity problem: a stabilisation doctrine for the future?

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the role of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations in modern conflict. It advocates for a new peacekeeping doctrine for stabilisation operations. The UN has authorised four such stabilisation missions, wading into challenging frontiers of asymmetrical warfare, endemic conflict, and multidimensional mandates. This article begins by surveying discourse on stabilisation at the UN, among its key members, and among the academic community. It highlights the penchant for strategic ambiguity that has prevented the UN from establishing clear stabilisation doctrine for its Blue Helmets. It then analyses the two case studies of Haiti and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN’s first two forays into official stabilisation operations. Evaluating them along the three axes of security, state consolidation, and political reconciliation, this article draws lessons learned and makes recommendations for a clear, modern UN stabilisation doctrine.

KEYWORDS:

• United Nations
• stabilisation
• Haiti
• Democratic Republic of the Congo
• doctrine
• modernity

Disclosure statement

In accordance with Taylor & Francis policy and my ethical obligation as a researcher, I have no competing interests to disclose about the research reported in the enclosed paper.

Notes

1 Alex J. Bellamy and Paul D. Williams, ‘Trends in Peace Operations, 1947–2013’, Oxford Handbooks Online, March 2014, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199686049.013.1.

2 Cedric de Coning and Chiyuki Aoi, ‘Conclusion: Towards a United Nations Stabilization Doctrine—Stabilization as an Emerging UN Practice’, in UN Peacekeeping Doctrine in a New Era: Adapting to Stabilisation, Protection and New Threats, ed. John Karlsrud, Cedric de Coning, and Chiyuki Aoi (London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2017), 288.

3 Ibid., 290–1.

4 David Curran and Paul Holtom, ‘Resonating, Rejecting, Reinterpreting: Mapping the Stabilization Discourse in the United Nations Security Council, 2000–14’, Stability: International Journal of Security & Development 4, no. 1 (2015): 2, https://www.stabilityjournal.org/articles/10.5334/sta.gm/#.

5 Alexander Gilder, ‘The Effect of ‘Stabilization’ in the Mandates and Practice of UN Peace Operations’, Netherlands International Law Review 66, no. 1 (2019): 48, https://doi.org/10.1007/s40802-019-00128-4.

6 Aditi Gorur, ‘Defining the Boundaries of UN Stabilization Missions’, (Stimson Center, December 2016), 9–11, https://www.stimson.org/wp-content/files/file-attachments/Defining-Boundaries-UN-Stabilization-Missions.pdf.

7 United Nations Peacekeeping, ‘Terminology’, https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/terminology, 18 Jan 2022.

8 Catherine Goetze, ‘Political Sociology of Peacebuilding Organizations. Introduction’, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding 14, no. 5 (2020): 592, https://doi.org/10.1080/17502977.2020.1825206.

9 United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Handbook on United Nations Multidimensional Peacekeeping Operations, United Nations: 2003, 1.

10 ‘UNSC Resolution 169 (1961) [S/5002]’, (United Nations Security Council, November 24, 1961) https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/171/76/PDF/NR017176.pdf?OpenElement.; ‘UNSC Resolution 1291 (2000)’, (United Nations Security Council, February 24, 2000), https://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/RES/1291(2000).

11 Malte Brosig and Norman Sempijja, ‘What Peacekeeping Leaves behind: Evaluating the Effects of Multi-Dimensional Peace Operations in Africa’, Conflict, Security & Development 17, no. 1 (February 2017): 23, https://doi.org/10.1080/14678802.2017.1261447.

12 Cedric de Coning, ‘Peace Enforcement in Africa: Doctrinal Distinctions between the African Union and United Nations’, Contemporary Security Policy 38, no. 1 (February 2017): 148, https://doi.org/10.1080/13523260.2017.1283108.

13 Robin Dunford and Michael Neu, ‘The Responsibility to Protect in a World of Already Existing Intervention’, European Journal of International Relations 25, no. 4 (December 2019): 1082, https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066119842208.

14 United Nations General Assembly, 2005 World Summit Outcome, A/RES/60/1, October 2005.

15 Dunford and Neu, ‘The Responsibility to Protect in a World of Already Existing Intervention’, 1083.

16 Ibid., 1082.

17 Gorur, ‘Defining’, 5.

18 ‘Report of the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations’, ReliefWeb (United Nations Secretary-General, July 16, 2015), 30, https://reliefweb.int/report/world/report-high-level-independent-panel-peace-operations.

19 Stabilization Assistance Review: A Framework for Maximizing the Effectiveness of U.S. Government Efforts to Stabilize Conflict-Affected Areas (U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Agency for International Development, 2018), 1.

20 Ibid.; ‘UNSC Resolution 169’, 2.

21 The UK Government’s Approach to Stabilisation: A Guide for Policy Makers and Practitioners (UK Stabilisation Unit, 2019).

22 Ibid., 9, 15.

23 Ibid., 13–4.

24 Michael Shurkin, ‘France’s War in the Sahel and the Evolution of Counter-Insurgency Doctrine’, Texas National Security Review 4, no. 1 (2020), https://doi.org/10.26153/tsw/11707.

25 Cedric de Coning, ‘Is Stabilization the New Normal? Implications of Stabilization Mandates for the Use of Force in UN Peace Operations’, in Use of Force in UN Peacekeeping, ed. Peter Nadin (London: Routledge, 2018), https://cedricdeconing.net/2016/10/04/is-stabilisation-the-new-normal-implications-of-stabilisation-mandates-for-the-use-of-force-in-un-peace-operations/.

26 Stéphane Taillat, ‘National Traditions and International Context: French Adaptation to Counterinsurgency in the 21st Century’, Security Challenges 6, no. 1 (2010): 90, https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/26459471.pdf.

27 Ibid.

28 Louise Wiuff Moe, ‘The Dark Side of Institutional Collaboration: How Peacekeeping-Counterterrorism Convergences Weaken the Protection of Civilians in Mali’, International Peacekeeping 28, no. 1 (2020): 2, https://doi.org/10.1080/13533312.2020.1821364.

29 Linda Robinson et al., ‘Finding the Right Balance: Department of Defense Roles in Stabilization’, (RAND Corporation, 2018), 95, https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR2400/RR2441/RAND_RR2441.pdf.

30 de Coning and Aoi, ‘Conclusion’, 291–4.

31 Gilder, ‘Effect’, 51.

32 John Karlsrud, ‘United Nations Stabilization Operations: Chapter Seven and a Half’, Ethnopolitics 18, no. 5 (2019): 494, https://doi.org/10.1080/17449057.2019.1640507.

33 Curran and Holtom, ‘Resonating’, 2.

34 Ibid., 1–2.

35 Karlsrud, ‘Seven and a Half’, 495.

36 John Karlsrud, ‘From Liberal Peacebuilding to Stabilization and Counterterrorism’, International Peacekeeping 26, no. 1 (2018): 1–21, https://doi.org/10.1080/13533312.2018.1502040.

37 Karlsrud, ‘Seven and a Half’, 504.

38 Chuck Thiessen, ‘The Strategic Ambiguity of the United Nations Approach to Preventing Violent Extremism’, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, (2019): 12, https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610x.2019.1647685.

39 Karlsrud, ‘Seven and a Half’; Thiessen, ‘Strategic Ambiguity’.

40 Gilder, ‘Effect’, 50.

41 Ibid.; Philipp Rotmann and Léa Steinacker, ‘Stabilization: Doctrine, Organisation and Practice’, (Global Public Policy Institute, March 2014), 35, https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/178271/rotmann-steinacker_2014_stabilisation-gppi-study_EN.pdf.

42 Ibid., 11.

43 UK Government’s Approach, 8.

44 Stabilization Assistance Review, 1.

45 Curran and Holtom, ‘Resonating’, 13.

46 Mateja Peter, ‘Between Doctrine and Practice: The UN Peacekeeping Dilemma’, Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Organisations 21, no. 3 (2015): 361, https://doi.org/10.1163/19426720-02103002.

47 Ibid.

48 Kaitlin Kaskela, ‘Reconciling the UN’s Mandate-Doctrine Gap: Towards a Global Peace and Security Partnership’, (ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2019), 37, https://search.proquest.com/docview/2232775340?fromopenview=true&pq-origsite=gscholar.

49 Peter, ‘Between Doctrine’, 360–1.

50 ‘IPI Panel Debates Need for Stabilization Doctrine’, International Peace Institute, March 23, 2017, https://www.ipinst.org/2017/03/towards-un-stabilization-doctrine#14.

51 de Coning, ‘Peace Enforcement’, 154.

52 Ibid.

53 Ibid., 147.

54 Ibid., 149.

55 Ibid., 151.

56 Gorur, ‘Defining’, 5.

57 Gilder, ‘Effect’, 52.

58 Karlsrud, ‘Liberal Peacebuilding’, 15–6.

59 Karlsrud, ‘Seven and a Half’, 505–6.; John Karlsrud, ‘Towards UN Counter-Terrorism Operations?’ Third World Quarterly 38, no. 6 (May 2017): 1226, https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2016.1268907.

60 Kaskela, ‘Reconciling’, 88.

61 Ibid., 88–9.

62 Peter, ‘Between’, 366–7.; de Coning and Aoi, ‘Conclusion’, 303.

63 David Keen and Larry Attree, ‘Dilemmas of Counter-Terror, Stabilisation and Statebuilding’, (Saferworld, January 2015), 3, https://www.saferworld.org.uk/downloads/pubdocs/dilemmas-of-counter-terror-stabilisation-and-statebuilding.pdf.

64 ‘MINUSTAH Fact Sheet’, United Nations Peacekeeping, 2021, https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/mission/minustah.

65 Ibid.; ‘MINUSTAH: Keeping the Peace, or Conspiring against It?’, HealthRoots Student Organisation (Harvard School of Public Health, October 2011), https://cdn1.sph.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/1712/2014/07/MINUSTAH-White-Paper1.pdf.

66 ‘Resolution 1542 (2004) / on establishment of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH)’, United Nations Digital Library (United Nations Security Council, April 30, 2004), https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/520532.

67 Ibid.; A. Walter Dorn, ‘Intelligence-Led Peacekeeping: The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), 2006–07’, Intelligence and National Security 24, no. 6 (2009): 806–7, https://doi.org/10.1080/02684520903320410.

68 Sarah Schwid, ‘United Nations and Haiti: UNDP, MINUSTAH and Civil Society’, (Drake Undergraduate Social Science Journal, 2009), 9–10, https://www.drake.edu/media/departmentsoffices/dussj/2010-2007documents/UNSchwid.pdf.

69 Markus-Michael Müller and Andrea Steinke, ‘The Geopolitics of Brazilian Peacekeeping and the United Nations’ Turn towards Stabilization in Haiti’, Peacebuilding 8, no. 1 (2018): 64, https://doi.org/10.1080/21647259.2018.1491277.

70 Ibid.

71 Ibid., 64–5.

72 Ibid., 65–6.

73 Ibid., 71.

74 Curran and Holtom, ‘Resonating’, 13.

75 ‘Resolution 1542 (2004)’, 2–3.

76 ‘Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti’ (United Nations Security Council, March 2017), 4, https://minustah.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/sg_report_on_minustah_-_final_-_english.pdf.; Athena R. Kolbe, ‘Prospects for Post-Minustah Security in Haiti’, International Peacekeeping 27, no. 1 (January 2020): 48, https://doi.org/10.1080/13533312.2020.1711557.

77 ‘Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti’ (United Nations Security Council, March 2016), 4, https://minustah.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/s2016225_en.pdf.; Kolbe, ‘Prospects’, 48.

78 Dorn, ‘Intelligence-led’, 823.; HealthRoots, ‘MINUSTAH’, 14–5.

79 Kolbe, ‘Prospects’, 48.

80 Dorn, ‘Intelligence-led’, 808.

81 HealthRoots., ‘MINUSTAH’, 3.

82 Ibid.

83 Kolbe, ‘Prospects’, 46–7.

84 Ibid., 51–2.

85 Alexandra Novosseloff, ‘The Effectiveness of the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’, International Peace Institute, December 19, 2019, https://theglobalobservatory.org/2019/12/effectiveness-un-mission-democratic-republic-of-the-congo/.

86 ‘Resolution 1925 (2010) The Situation Concerning the Democratic Republic of the Congo’, (United Nations Security Council, May 28, 2010), http://unscr.com/en/resolutions/doc/1925.

87 ‘Background - MONUC’, United Nations Peacekeeping, 2010, https://monuc.unmissions.org/en/background.

88 Ashleigh Jean de Vos, ‘The Securitization of Peacekeeping? The Case of MONUSCO and Resolution 2098 (2010 to 2013)’, Department of Political Science (University of Pretoria, October 2017), 40–2, https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/65544/DeVos_Security_2017.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.

89 ‘Resolution 1925’, 3–4.

90 Ibid., 6–7.

91 UNSC, ‘Special Report of the Secretary-General on the Strategic Review of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’, (United Nations Security Council, September 29, 2017), 18–9, https://monusco.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/n1730125.pdf. ; ‘Report of the Secretary-General: United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’, (United Nations Security Council, September 21, 2020), 9, https://monusco.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/s_2020_919_e.pdf.

92 ‘Report of the Secretary-General: United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’, (United Nations Security Council, December 1, 2021), 8–10, https://monusco.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/s_2021_987_e.pdf.

93 Ibid.; UNSC, ‘Special Report’, 22–3.

94 Novosseloff, ‘Effectiveness’.

95 Curran and Holtom, ‘Resonating’, 5–6.

96 de Coning, ‘Peace Enforcement’, 148.

97 Curran and Holtom, ‘Resonating’, 5–6.

98 ‘Background - MONUSCO’, United Nations Peacekeeping, 2020, https://monusco.unmissions.org/en/background.

99 Curran and Holtom, ‘Resonating’, 5–6.

100 Giovanna Kuele and Marco Cepik, ‘Intelligence Support to MONUSCO: Challenges to Peacekeeping and Security’, The International Journal of Intelligence, Security, and Public Affairs 19, no. 1 (February 2017): 44–68, https://doi.org/10.1080/23800992.2017.1289751.

101 Ibid., 61–2.

102 Novosseloff, ‘Effectiveness’.

103 Karlsrud, ‘Seven and a Half’, 499.

104 Ibid.

105 Bernardin Nyangi, ‘North Kivu: Stabilization Projects Restore Social Cohesion in the Bwito Chiefdom’, United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the DR Congo, August 11, 2021, https://monusco.unmissions.org/en/north-kivu-stabilization-projects-restore-social-cohesion-bwito-chiefdom.

106 Karlsrud, ‘Seven and a Half’, 499.

107 UNSC, ‘Special Report’, 7.

108 Ibid., 2.; ‘Report of the Secretary-General: United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’, (United Nations Security Council, September 17, 2021), 7, https://monusco.unmissions.org/sites/default/files/s-2021-807_-_sg_report_on_monusco_in_english.pdf.

109 de Vos, ‘Securitization’, 82.

110 Ibid.

111 IPI, ‘IPI Panel Debates’, 2017.

112 Gorur, ‘Defining’, 15–7.

113 Ibid., 16.

114 Ibid.

115 Ibid., 17.

116 Karlsrud, ‘Seven and a Half’, 494.

117 Ibid., 505–6.

118 de Coning, ‘Peace Enforcement’, 148–9.

119 Curran and Holtom, ‘Resonating’, 5–6.

120 Kuele and Cepik, ‘Intelligence Support’, 61.

121 Paul D. Williams and Arthur Boutellis, ‘Partnership Peacekeeping: Challenges and Opportunities in the United Nations-African Union Relationship’, African Affairs 113, no. 451 (January 2014): 254–78, https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/adu021.

122 Robert Muggah, ‘The United Nations Turns to Stabilization’, International Peace Institute, December 5, 2014, https://theglobalobservatory.org/2014/12/united-nations-peacekeeping-peacebuilding-stabilisation/.

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Stefan Bakumenko

Stefan Bakumenko is a Master's student in George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs. He possesses dual Bachelor's Degrees in Economics and International Relations from the University of Maryland, College Park. He has done a variety of work with Refugees International, the U.S. Department of State, and the Carnegie Council of Ethics in International Affairs. He was a 2019 recipient of the Critical Language Scholarship, studying the Russian language in Vladimir, Russia.