The political economy of civil wars and the future of UN peacekeeping
Journal: Conflict Security and Development
Year: 2025

The article examines the UN’s encounter with the political economy of civil war, focusing on the lessons from the large multidimensional operations that have consumed the bulk of the UN’s peacekeeping attention, resources, and manpower since 1999. It argues that the UN has proven itself structurally and politically ill-equipped to undertake large-scale peace operations aimed at transforming societies riven by internal conflict. Acknowledging this does not mean that the UN has no role to play in