Rising powers and the future of peacekeeping and peacebuilding

Published as: Benjamin de Carvalho and Cedric de Coning. 2013. Rising Powers and the Future of Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding,  Oslo: NOREF, available at: https://emergingpowerspeacebuilding.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/carvalho-de-coning-rising-powers-peacebuilding.pdf

This report considers the influence of the rising powers on the governance of international peace and security, and especially United Nations (UN) peacekeeping and peacebuilding. It argues that the rising powers are committed to the reform of the global order, and that they are pursuing a multilateral rule-based global architecture that can provide the legal and political framework necessary to ensure a more equitable, enforceable and stable global order, in which it would be impossible for any one country, or bloc of countries, to dominate the system. However, this reform agenda needs to be understood in long-term evolutionary terms. The rising powers have a strong incentive to be cautious in their approach, because disruptions to the global order would harm their own economic growth and thus their own internal developmental agendas. In the context of peacekeeping and peacebuilding, the report argues that the reform of the international peace and security system is not a high priority for the rising powers in the short to medium term, bar exceptional cases like Libya and Syria. However, the influence of these powers may gradually result in UN peacekeeping and peacebuilding becoming more sensitive to respect for sovereignty and national ownership.