The UN at War

"This is an ambitious, rigorous, comprehensive and deeply thoughtful analysis of the state of the UN peace operations. Karlsrud persuasively demonstrates that the trend in favour of ever more "robust" peacekeeping, a notable feature of UN operations since 2000, carries very real risks. Through a detailed and illuminating analysis of on-going operations - informed in part by the author's personal experience in the field - the overall conclusion is unmistakable: "the urge to resort to use UN peace operations for peace enforcement purposes, whether against armed opposition groups or terrorists" needs to be resisted and critically reexamined." (Mats Berdal, Director, Conflict, Security and Development Research Group (CSDRG), Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy, Department of War Studies, King's College London)

It provides constructive suggestions as to how the UN and the international system can evolve to remain relevant and tackle the peace and security challenges of the 21^stcentury, without abandoning the principles that the UN was founded upon and on which the legitimacy of UN peace operations rests.

This book is a critical political and institutional reflection on UN peace operations. It provides constructive suggestions as to how the UN and the international system can evolve to remain relevant and tackle the peace and security challenges of the 21^st century, without abandoning the principles that the UN was founded upon and on which the legitimacy of UN peace operations rests. The author analyses the evolving politics on UN peace operations of the five veto powers of the UN Security Council, as well as major troop-contributing countries and western powers. He investigates the move towards peace enforcement and counter-terrorism, and what consequences this development may have for the UN. Karlsrud issues a challenge to practitioners and politicians to make sure that the calls for reform are anchored in a desire to improve the lives of people suffering in conflicts on the ground—and not spurred by intra-organizational turf battles or solely the narrow self-interests of member states. Finally, he asks how the UN can adapt its practices to become more field- and people-centered, in line with its core, primary commitments of protecting and serving people in need.