International Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding

Peacekeeping has evolved in the last decades, especially because of the changes in conflict patterns, the actors involved in violent processes and the regional and international security structure that made the world more complex. Peacekeeping and peacebuilding deal with violence and its multiple expressions, which is central to international interventions/assistance and their evaluations. The United Nations and regional organisations have constantly changed the way of acting to manage, resolve or transform conflicts, which involve processes to improve the quality and effectiveness of the field missions. However, UN peacekeeping is suffering a crisis of legitimacy. Besides there have been no new deployments since 2014, the UN operation in Mali was closed down at the end of 2023, and the operation in the Democratic Republic of Congo is expected to withdraw soon. This panel aims to assemble different theoretical, methodological, and empirical approaches to the wide range of contemporary peacekeeping and peacebuilding, including aspects of the use of force, protection of civilians, human rights, humanitarian assistance, conflict dynamics, post-conflict activities, as well as case studies about countries’ participation in peacekeeping and peace operations on the ground.