The objective of peacebuilding is not to remake a society but to give the members of that society a shot at remaking it themselves. Willingness not only to collaborate but to commit forces to potentially risky operations requires a sense that national interests are engaged in such enterprises, as well as a good sense of the real risk involved, and considerable trust in the competence of mission leaders. The UN cannot do the national interest calculations for its member states, but it could do a much better job of analyzing potential risks in a new mission, and a much better job of providing competent, well-informed, trustworthy mission leadership, and responsive headquarters support for operations. The report argues that operational risks can be mitigated by better advance intelligence about the mission area, by better field intelligence for the operations themselves, and by more robust operations that would clearly cost more initially, but would be better able to deter or rebuff violent challenge, and would thus facilitate speedier peace implementation and a speedier mission exit. For UN peace operations as for more traditional military action, gradualism increases risk and ultimately increases cost.
Preparedness costs money, but in a pinch, lack of preparedness costs much more.