Update on Peace Operations and COVID-19

With a global recession looming due to COVID-19, the large blue-helmet UN missions will be harder to sustain, both financially and politically. So the UN is learning to “think small”.

COVID-19 has had an immediate impact on UN peace operations. Troop rotations have been frozen, and interactions with local populations minimized. Yet the long-term economic and political consequences for peacekeeping look more severe.

[…] The Brief is structured as follows: the main text analyses the emerging trends catalysed by the pandemic crisis in conflict-affected contexts, while the case study boxes discuss the unfolding processes in specific countries. The last section discusses the policy options for preventing further escalatory repercussions.

An updated funding appeal for the UN’s Global Humanitarian Response Plan (GHRP) for COVID-19 puts the scale of need in stark terms — and, so far, only $1.18 billion of the $6.7 billion request has been recorded.

Even at the best of times, peacekeeping is a dangerous, difficult job. In the age of COVID-19, United Nations peacekeepers must navigate not only bullets and bureaucratic red tape, but also a deadly virus. Following the May 29 announcement of the first two deaths of peacekeepers from COVID-19, one question looms large: can peacekeeping?—after years of budget cuts and growing uncertainty about the scope of its mission—cope with a pandemic?

The novel coronavirus has complicated the election-year calendar for Africa, as elsewhere, prompting some polling delays, suspensions and uncertainties. It also has created openings for leaders to exploit fears and tighten their grips on power, political observers say.

What impact will the coronavirus pandemic have on the international strategic environment, notions of threat and security, the evolution of warfare and other key areas? What concerns do all of these issues create for NATO as a politico-military alliance? In the seven chapters of this publication, Thierry Tardy et al respond.

The global coronavirus pandemic is testing the multilateral system like never before and the Security Council must stop the “infighting”, and step up to the challenge, the European Union’s foreign policy chief told the 15-member body on Thursday. Josep Borrell said the novel coronavirus crisis – like climate change – shows the need for collective action and that the rules-based international order, with the UN at its core, must be upheld and strengthened.

Innocent civilians trapped in violence now face “a new and deadly threat” from COVID-19, the UN chief told the Security Council on Wednesday, warning that the pandemic is “amplifying and exploiting the fragilities of our world”.

In several countries afflicted by years of armed conflict, The UN assists with law and order issues, including policing expertise. This work is being challenged, as never before, by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this interview with UN News, Luis Carrilho, head of the UN Police Division, describes how the virus is affecting the ability of his colleagues to keep the peace.