Around 50 heads of state and other dignitaries were already seated when President Obama entered the room against the backdrop of a slick animated video highlighting the many needs of contemporary peacekeeping from engineering units, over well-equipped infantry to medical units and airlift.
The atmosphere was more televised charity show than UN meeting as an oversize screen started counting the pledges made by various countries under equally nifty cartoon-like icons. Country X pledging a helicopter squadron and country Y pledging a demining unit – ding and ding went the dashboard.
As the 21st century pomp and circumstance died down after hours of pledging and commitments, the organisers proudly declared, that in addition to some 40,000 new troops and police, the participating countries had pledged to provide more than 40 helicopters, 15 military engineering companies and 10 field hospitals.
The participating countries had also pledged Special Forces contingents, an unmanned aerial vehicle (drone), a canine unit for demining, and transport aircraft.
In essence, many if not most of the critical capability gaps for UN peacekeeping had been addressed including for more effectively protecting civilians as described in a recent paper by Frederik Rosén and this author.
So where did the significant pledges come from and which countries (of those invited) kept a low profile?
En kinesisk overraskelse
In terms of personnel commitments, China took the room by surprise with its announcement of an 8,000 man strong standby force for rapid deployment to UN missions. This comes only months after its first-ever deployment of an infantry battalion to the peacekeeping mission in South Sudan.
In addition, China committed 100m USD to assist the African Union in strengthening their peacekeeping capacities. China went from being absent from peacekeeping to dominating President Obama’s dashboard in a matter of months – a development this and other analysts will follow with interest.
Stigende latinamerikansk rolle
As another new kid on the block, Colombia’s commitment to soon providing up to 5,000 peacekeepers was an indication that new troop contributing countries are entering the scene with exceptionally substantial commitments.
On top of Brazil’s commitment to provide additional 800 soldiers and 200 marines, Mexico declared its intention of establishing a peacekeeping training centre and becoming a serious TCC (troop contributing country) within a few years adding further weight to Central and Latin America’s growing role in peacekeeping.
This was further underlined when Uruguay pledged to add another 2,000 peacekeepers out of its 3.4m population to the approximately 1,500 Uruguayans already serving with the UN.
Ny nul-tolerance overfor FN-soldaters overgreb
Sri Lanka’s offer of a range of personnel types also represented a boost of the country’s UN commitment but one that may be contested due to the role of its armed forces during the country’s civil war. The same can be said of troops from other countries with flawed human rights and international humanitarian law records.
In the wake of the recent cases of serious misconduct by UN troops, President Obama, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other Member State representatives stressed the need for compliance with international humanitarian law and for absolute non-tolerance towards non-compliance. At the practical level, discharging non-compliant troops and contingents is likely to become considerably easier with more troop contributors to choose from.
The group counting the largest TCCs including Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Rwanda also made additional personnel pledges at Monday’s summit as did, for example, Indonesia by committing an additional 2,700 troops.
Også avanceret udstyr
Importantly, the major TCCs also all committed to providing more of their advanced technologies and hardware as well as specialised military personnel in addition to the traditional infantry battalions.
The pledges included an unmanned aerial vehicle, and other aviation assets from Pakistan, utility helicopters from Bangladesh, two attack helicopters from Rwanda, Special Forces from Nepal and what India referred to as a range of “critical enablers”.
Other specialised capacities offered by the collective of Member States included riverine capabilities, surveillance/intelligence capacities and equipment for countering improvised explosive devices.
Manglende europæisk entusiasme
Western countries and their well-trained troops and advanced equipment had been the original target of Obama’s efforts to enhance the capacity of UN peace operations. While both Norway, Finland and the Netherlands increased their already significant (compared with the European average) contributions; Italy made the most significant European pledge with a helicopter squadron, an engineering company, and a specialised infantry battalion.
With the United Kingdom’s pledge of 300 troops for the mission in South Sudan and 70 specialised troops for the African Union led mission in Somalia, the UK more than doubled their contribution but is far behind what much smaller countries provide.
Other European countries had either not been invited because of their reluctance to make firm commitments and many that did participate brought little to the table.
Denmark offered 12 police officers to the mission in Mali as well as an increased (though undefined) military contribution also to Mali.
In the social media outlets following the summit, Germany and Canada were highlighted as among the Western countries most distinctively disengaged – both pledging zero new troops.
The US itself modestly promised to double its current deployment of 80 uniformed peacekeepers. However, Obama did promise to make the US’ “unrivalled network of air- and sea-lift” available to the UN as well as to offer other logistical support including for establishing airfields and peacekeeping bases.
Overraskende mange nye FN-soldater
In summary, the pledges far exceeded the expectations of analysts like this author. That said Obama’s advocacy campaign with Western nations seems to have largely failed while a range of new troop and capability contributors stepped in to fill the gap.
The commitment of more sophisticated equipment from traditional TCCs is also an interesting development that will help change the perception that some TCCs are mainly “in it for the money”.
The diversification and expansion of UN peacekeeping capabilities will surely help bridge the gap between increasingly ambitious and multidimensional Security Council mandates including for protection of civilians and the capacities needed to implement them.
Thus, if just half of these pledges end up materializing, it is likely to address most of the critical capability needs impeding UN peace operations on the military side.
Det handler om at skabe varig fred
However, as long-time peacekeeping analyst Cedric de Coning (@CedricdeConing) tweeted yesterday, the renewed military capabilities must not undermine the much broader efforts needed to make peacekeeping effective and peace lasting.
As stated in the recent high-level report of the Independent Panel on Peace Operations, “Lasting peace is achieved not through military and technical engagements, but through political solutions”. With renewed troop commitments and enhanced capabilities, UN missions should be much better positioned to establish the conditions for political settlements – including through deterrence and projection of force.
Kristoffer Nilaus Tarp is an analyst and an independent advisor currently focusing UN peace operations and UN politics; International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights in military training and capacity building; and South-South cooperation in fragile and conflict-affected states.
