With more investment, Australia can help secure UN peacekeeping’s future

As UN peacekeeping faces an uncertain future, Australia can step up to support this multilateral tool and shape the next phase of UN peace operations.

Through greater and more targeted investment in UN peacekeeping and international policing, Australia could build security relationships with key regional stakeholders while supporting an international multilateral order that meets its interests and contributes to international peace and security.

This year’s International Day of UN Peacekeepers, 29 May, encouraged the world to look ahead to the future of peacekeeping. This theme was in focus this month when more than 130 ministers and government officials gathered in Berlin for the UN Peacekeeping Ministerial. This biennial conference provides a political platform to encourage contributions of personnel and other enabling support for UN peacekeeping.

In a welcome move, Australia was among the 74 countries pledging support. It offered  strategic airlift in crisis situations, training, capacity-building programs and more money for conflict prevention and peacebuilding. But it can and must do more to secure the future of peacekeeping.

UN peacekeeping has been a central tool of collective and multilateral security for more than 75 years. Yet geopolitical tensions and differences in the Security Council, as well as a crisis of confidence in missions to countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, and Lebanon, have prompted speculation about the demise of UN peacekeeping. This has been compounded by the Trump administration’s proposal to withdraw its funding, which amounts to more than a quarter of the US$5.6 billion budget for UN peacekeeping in 2024-25.

Despite these circumstances, international support for UN peacekeeping remains high. Discussions at the conference were underpinned by a report on the future of peacekeeping, which identified future models and approaches to address conflict scenarios that may predominate in the decades ahead. The report also laid out research demonstrating peacekeeping’s effectiveness.

Australia’s pledges at the conference were modest, in part due to the timing of its 3 May election. As member states position themselves to implement commitments and contribute ideas as part of the UN Secretary-General’s review of ‘the future of all forms of United Nations peace operations’, the returned Albanese government should assess Australia’s contributions to UN peacekeeping. Such efforts would support Australia’s commitment to conflict prevention during its current term on the Peacebuilding Commission and highlight its credentials as it runs for a term on the UN Security Council.

Capacity-building and training have been mainstays of Australia’s commitment to UN peacekeeping. The Australian Federal Police is working in partnership with the UN to train peacekeepers from across the Pacific, drawing on the work of the Pacific Police Initiative and the Pacific Policing Development and Coordination Hub in Brisbane. A 2020 ASPI research report demonstrated that Pacific countries are interested in contributing to UN missions.

The Australian government should continue to work with regional partners and the UN to ensure that those that meet training requirements can deploy. Australia’s recent pledge to collaborate with Japan and South Korea to deliver training as part of the UN Triangular Partnership Programme in Southeast Asia is another welcome development. Such initiatives will require ongoing resourcing of initiatives such as the ADF’s Peace Operations Training Centre.

Like many Western countries, Australia focused its commitments at the ministerial conference more on supporting others to deploy, rather than pledging ‘boots on the ground’. Contributing military and police personnel is important for Australia’s continued reputation as a peacekeeping nation. Operational experience with the UN is also a prerequisite for leadership positions. Australia must support ongoing and steady rotation of personnel to UN peacekeeping missions if it wants to be competitive when future positions arise.

In addition to maintaining current deployments to South Sudan and the Middle East, the government should continue exploring co-deployments. Although previously announced initiatives to co-deploy with Indonesia and Fiji have not yet happened, such initiatives can help foster bilateral and regional security partnerships.

Despite Australia’s significant police peacekeeping credentials, Australian Federal Police personnel have not deployed to a UN peacekeeping mission since Australia withdrew from Cyprus in 2017. This is disappointing, given Australia’s leadership on UN policing, including its spearheading of Resolution 2185 in its last term on the Security Council, establishing policing as a key aspect of peacekeeping. At a minimum, Australia should be identifying opportunities to prepare, train and deploy AFP personnel to UN missions, including possible co-deployment alongside Pacific police officers.

Australia has also invested in supporting research strengthening UN peacekeeping operations and strategic policy development. This has included investments in technology and innovation; air power; policing; women, peace and security; and protection of civilians. Given future missions will inevitably be expected to protect civilians, Australia has an opportunity to lead on these efforts, including through the work of the Australian Civil Military Centre. Australia can also bring its expertise in the maritime and cyber domains to support innovation around future peacekeeping models that are better equipped to respond to emerging challenges. Doing so will constitute support for the international multilateral order at this critical moment.