Reform of the United Nations peace and security pillar. Responding to new challenges and the risk of irrelevance

Abstract

In 2015, the United Nations embarked on an ongoing process of reforming its peace and security pillar. In doing so, it has sought to respond to important challenges to the functioning, support and relevance of its peace operations, such as: the proliferation of conflicts that are difficult to resolve politically, the questioning of multilateralism, the growing role of non-Western countries in peace operations, the theoretical questioning of the liberal peace agenda, and criticism of the inefficiency of its missions. The reform process, based on various documents and resolutions, has involved new objectives and criteria, institutional changes, and political and operational initiatives. Some of its fundamental postulates are the prioritisation of the search for political solutions to conflicts; the holistic, preventive and long-term perspective of "sustainable peace"; greater flexibility and adaptability of mandates; the interrelation between peace, development and human rights; a less statocentric and more people-centred approach; and the mainstreaming of the gender approach. The reform has resulted in a number of improvements in the articulation and implementation of peace operations, albeit limited.