Originally published on the CGS blog on December 3, 2007.
“Should the anticipated discussions fail to clear the path to the deployment of an effective force, the international community will be confronted with hard choices: do we move ahead with the deployment of a force that will not make a difference, that will not have the capability to defend itself, and that carries the risk of humiliation of the Security Council and the United Nations, and tragic failure for the people of Darfur.” — UN Under Secretary-General Jean-Marie Guehenno in remarks to the Security Council, November 28.
Only a few noticed, but Guehenno’s report to the Security Council last week was far more challenging and confrontational than the average briefing from a UN official to member states, but these are not ordinary circumstances. First, according to Guehenno, Khartoum is threatening to renege on its promise:
Five months ago (on 17 June) in Khartoum, this Council received President Bashir’s agreement with AU-UN plans for a peacekeeping operation in Darfur without preconditions. During the Secretary-General’s visit to Sudan in September, President Bashir gave him personal assurances that his Government would facilitate the deployment of UNAMID. Over the past few weeks, the Government’s reluctance to facilitate the practical preparations for UNAMID as well as the public statements made by its senior officials call into question that commitment.
Even if Sudan cooperates, there are a number of obstacles to success. There are still serious gaps in the UNAMID force that, unless filled, will ultimately doom the mission.
Another major issue is funding. As we saw with the AU Mission in Sudan, under-resourced peace operations fail. The U.S. is already projected to be over a billion dollars behind in payments to UN peacekeeping. That is a tremendous disincentive to other countries to contribute troops. UNAMID is the largest, most expensive UN peacekeeping mission in history. Failure to meet our obligations jeopardizes not only UNAMID, but the other UN peace operations that compete with UNAMID for funding.
Expectations for UN peacekeeping are sky high even though resources are nowhere to be found. I’m worried that the UN is being set up for failure.
President Bush included a $724 million for UNAMID in his war supplemental. Regardless of what happens to the rest of the bill, Democrats in Congress have to find a way to provide for the full amount, and then need to do it soon.
By the way: next time a major crisis happens, wouldn’t it be nice to have a well-trained, interoperable service ready to deploy within days instead of months? It’s been a while since I’ve written about the proposed UN Emergency Peace Service. Today, 54 organizations — including a lot of heavy hitters and new players in the peace operations arena — signed a letter urging its creation. This is an idea whose time has come.
