Protection After UN Peacekeeping Mission Departures

UN peacekeeping is experiencing a crisis of confidence. Though conflict levels have nearly doubled in the past five years, some UN member states, including host countries, appear to be questioning peacekeeping as a tool to manage conflict. The UN Security Council has not authorized a new peacekeeping mission in more than a decade, and missions are being forced to leave countries due to political or budgetary pressures, even as conflict and violence against civilians persist at high levels. This reality has prompted a need for new thinking about how protection is managed in the context of mission departures. Previously, conversations on protection during transitions focused on the need for gradual mission withdrawals based on meeting protection benchmarks, but these ideas now need to be complemented with more pragmatic discussions of what protection looks like when missions leave countries amid ongoing high levels of violence and with little partnership or cooperation from the host government.