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8 old and new challenges for UN peacekeeping

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Peter Albrecht & Corine van Emmerik

Recent reviews and calls from the ‘Pact for the Future’ to reshape the UN peacekeeping framework, underscore an urgent need for innovation and dialogue to ensure peacekeeping’s continued relevance.

While peacekeeping’s core principles of impartiality, consent, and limited use of force remain essential for fostering trust and legitimacy, rethinking is also needed to address unresolved challenges like asymmetric warfare, regionalized conflicts, and external geopolitical influences.

Denmark’s seat on the United Nations Security Council for 2025–2026 presents a crucial opportunity to shape the future of peacekeeping, particularly as adapting conflict responses aligns closely with Denmark’s key thematic priorities for its tenure. We recommend eight ways to address both enduring and emerging challenges.

Recommendations

  1. Support regional partnerships
  2. Transition out of multidimensional peacekeeping
  3. Advance the Women, Peace and Security Agenda
  4. Integrate climate security and peacekeeping
  5. Address capability-expectations gaps
  6. Promote conflict prevention
  7. Connect peacekeeping to political processes
  8. Manage mission expectations