Background Paper: Looking to the Future: Peace Operations in 2015

Global peacekeeping enters its seventh decade at a moment of strategic uncertainty – with a shifting power balance between the great and emerging powers; with a poorly understood and evolving terrorism threat; and with deep political divisions that trace outwards from the war in Iraq complicating international cooperation in a range of areas, but particularly on collective security questions. This report forecasts some aspects of the likely future of peacekeeping over the next five to seven years.

This paper was authored by Dr. Bruce D. Jones as a basis for discussion at the Challenges Forum Seminar 2009 in New York.