Conflict management norms in multilateral fora such as the UN Security Council are in flux. There is ambiguity and uncertainty surrounding the future of collective conflict management. This context makes it more difficult for UN peace operations to interpret mandates and political directives, which already tend to be static, ambiguous, and insufficiently contextualised to complex and fast-changing environments.  

In this project, funded by a Faculty Starter Grant, we develop two research lines. The first investigates the opportunities and challenges of the UN's Special Political Missions as a potentially promising instrument to both address some of the shortcomings of current templates and generate consensus among UN member states. These missions are more squarely focused on the politics of peace processes, light-footprint, and support the conflict parties in things like mediation and the  implementation of peace agreements. They are increasingly being operationalised to manage conflict globally because large military peace operations are no longer considered an option due to their cost, inability to resolve the conflict, and a deficit of viable exit strategies. However, we have relatively little knowledge about what they do, how they function, and how effective they are.

The second research line asks how the staff and leadership operating in Special Political Missions navigate this increased ambiguity. How do SPM staff interpret and action UN mandates at mission level? How can we explain variation in mission level interpretation of top-down directives? How do SPM staff navigate international and regional competition in their mission areas?

To answer these questions, we use a comparative case study across different types of SPMs on three continents. This research contributes to scholarship on how global governance is dealing with the crisis of multilateralism and debates on organisational culture, principal-agent relationships, and micro-level responses to macro-level ambiguity.

• conflict management
• international organisations
• peace and security
• peacekeeping
• security and threat

Share on Facebook Share by Bluesky Share on LinkedIn Share by WhatsApp Share by Mastodon