European Peace Institute / News

The transition to Phase Two of the Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict, following the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 2803 (2025), has brought renewed focus to the proposed International Stabilization Force (ISF). While the resolution authorizes the ISF as a central operational pillar of the next phase, significant uncertainty remains around its mandate, composition, sequencing, and relationship to emerging Palestinian governance arrangements.

This issue brief examines the conditions under which the ISF could contribute to stabilization rather than exacerbate political and security risks. Drawing on IPI-led consultations and off-the-record discussions with regional actors, UN officials, member states, and Israeli and Palestinian experts, the brief unpacks key challenges related to anchoring stabilization in a credible political horizon, clarifying the division of labor among international and local actors, and sequencing deployment alongside Israeli withdrawal, Palestinian policing, and reconstruction.

The brief surfaces critical questions for policymakers on mandate design, coordination, risk management, and legitimacy. It underscores that the ISF’s effectiveness will depend on its integration into a broader political framework, meaningful Palestinian participation, and clear benchmarks linking stabilization to a durable political process.

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The post Stabilizing Gaza and Shaping a Political Horizon: Conditions for an Effective International Stabilization Force appeared first on International Peace Institute.

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Organized by the Permanent Mission of Pakistan, the Arria-formula meeting on upholding the sanctity of treaties on January 30th brought together UN Security Council members and legal experts to address the escalating challenges to the international legal order.

In his briefing to the UN Security Council, IPI President Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein stressed “So apparent is [the importance of treaties], and so obvious is the anarchy that would result from their wholesale weakening, that is it not like asking ourselves to make a case for breathing?”

The meeting served as a vital call to action for Member States to recalibrate their engagement with the multilateral system—not by withdrawing from it, but by reinforcing the legal frameworks that have preserved international peace and security for decades.

The post IPI President Briefs UN Security Council Arria-Formula Meeting on Upholding the Sanctity of International Treaties appeared first on International Peace Institute.

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On January 27, 2026, the International Peace Institute (IPI) hosted its annual Peacekeeping Observatory workshop, in partnership with the French Ministry of the Armed Forces’ Directorate General for International Relations and Strategy (DGRIS). This year’s workshop focused on mission transitions. Participants included member state representatives, UN personnel, and independent experts.

The first session provided an opportunity to take stock of the UN Transitions Project, which concluded in 2025. Comprising the UN Development Coordination Office (DCO), the Department of Peace Operations (DPO), the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA), and the UN Development Program (UNDP), the project, which started in 2014, provided direct support to countries undergoing transitions and contributed to the development of UN Secretariat guidance on transitions. In addition to reflecting on the conclusions and practices that emerged from the project, participants considered how the political landscape on transitions has changed since the adoption of Security Council resolution 2594. The discussion emphasized the importance of ensuring flexibility and coherence in transition planning while sustaining political engagement with host governments. Experts discussed opportunities for sustaining efforts on critical tasks, such as the protection of civilians during and after transitions through integrated planning with UN country teams and leveraging financing mechanisms like the Peacebuilding Fund.

The second session focused on critical challenges from the field in current and recent transition settings. Much of the discussion centered on responses to accelerated withdrawals and transitions in crisis settings, drawing on the experience of MINUSMA. Participants discussed ways to address challenges related to financing gaps, knowledge and capacity transfer, and sustaining political engagement in volatile contexts. Experts also reflected on the importance of strategic communications in transition planning and in managing public information and awareness, especially around mandate renewals, transitions, and/or reconfigurations of the UN presence.

During a working lunch, participants were briefed by the co-facilitators of the recently concluded 2025 peacebuilding architecture review (PBAR), including reflections on the role that the UN Peacebuilding Commission and the Peacebuilding Fund can play in transition contexts. The ensuing discussion focused on funding challenges for peacebuilding, obstacles to the implementation of the PBAR, and the willingness of member states to engage with the peacebuilding architecture.

The final session considered potential future transitions and how they can be informed by key takeaways from the workshop. Participants discussed the need for missions to have exit strategies from the beginning while anticipating different scenarios, the importance of engaging host states authorities, civil society and local communities in transition processes, the relevance of transition benchmarks, and challenges and opportunities for developing networked approaches to multilateralism.

As part of its Peacekeeping Observatory series, IPI will also publish three issue briefs in 2026 on UN mission transitions, including:

• The role of strategic communications in mission transitions, by Albert Trithart
• Accelerated withdrawals and transitions in crisis settings, by Dirk Druet
• Women, peace, and security and transitions, by Lauren McGowan and Evyn Papworth

The post IPI Peacekeeping Observatory Series on Mission Transitions appeared first on International Peace Institute.

Peacekeeping-intelligence (PKI) plays a central role in enhancing the safety and security of UN personnel and in supporting mandate implementation, particularly the protection of civilians. Yet despite growing recognition that gender dynamics shape conflict behavior, threat patterns, and community engagement, gender perspectives remain unevenly integrated across PKI institutions, analytical processes, and training systems. This limits missions’ situational awareness, weakens their early-warning capacity, and constrains their operational effectiveness. 

This issue brief examines how gender can be more systematically integrated into PKI across three interrelated dimensions: the representation of women within PKI institutions, the integration of gender perspectives across the PKI cycle, and the design and delivery of PKI training. Drawing on UN policies and more than 100 interviews with personnel across five peacekeeping missions, the brief highlights persistent structural, analytical, and institutional gaps that undermine gender-responsive intelligence. 

The brief argues that integrating gender into PKI is not merely a normative obligation but a core operational requirement. Advancing this agenda requires sustained investment in workforce diversity, analytical methodologies, data systems, training design, and institutional collaboration to strengthen predictive capacity, enhance civilian protection, and improve mission performance. 

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IPI and the Permanent Mission of Latvia to the United Nations cohosted a public discussion on Navigating Frontline Challenges for the use of Technology in UN Peace Operations on December 11th.

The event examined how UN peace operations should navigate the changing technology landscape to maximize potential benefits for efficiency and effectiveness, address changing threats posed by the use of technology by conflict parties, and mitigate the risks and potential harms presented by the introduction of new technologies into peacekeeping environments. As the Secretariat’s ongoing review of the future of all forms of UN peace operations examines opportunities for new mission modalities and formats, this event considered the potential role of new technologies across various types of mission configurations. This could include, for example, the appropriate balance of remote sensing technologies and on-the-ground presence in a future ceasefire-monitoring mission. Panelists also discussed the political, operational, and ethical implications of new peacekeeping technologies within the current geopolitical and financial environment and proposed opportunities to adapt the UN’s technology and innovation agenda in light of these challenges.

Opening Remarks:
H.E. Sanita Pavļuta-Deslandes, Permanent Representative of Latvia to the United Nations

Speakers:
Remi Clavet, Chief of Joint Mission Analysis Center (JMAC), UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) (Virtual)
Dirk Druet, Non-Resident Fellow, International Peace Institute
Major Modris Kairišs, Head of Autonomous Systems Competence Center, National Armed Forces of Latvia (Virtual)
Barbara Nieuwenhuys, Digital Transformation Team, UN Department of Peace Operations (DPO)

Closing Remarks:
H.E. Usman Iqbal Jadoon, Deputy Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations (Virtual)

Moderator:
Lauren McGowan, Policy Analyst, International Peace Institute

The post Navigating Frontline Challenges for the Use of Technology in UN Peace Operations appeared first on International Peace Institute.

We are all heartbroken by the news we have lost a cherished member of our small IPI/IPA family in the form of Ambassador David Malone DPhil, who served as our President with great distinction from 1998 to 2004. We extend our condolences to David’s family, as well as to his diplomatic family in Canada.

Loved and respected by the UN Think-Tank community, David was ubiquitous throughout Turtle Bay when leading IPA, always in the thick of things, tugging at old approaches and suggesting new ways of analyzing multilateralism. He did so brilliantly and—true to his personality, often playfully. He was a most remarkable man and a friend to so many of us. We will miss him sorely.

– Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, IPI President

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David was a remarkable individual. Superb writer/observer on the U.N., on international law, on politics wherever he found himself. He loved teaching and urged many of his students to work with international organizations and to consider the work of diplomacy as a career. I had the good fortune to work with him at IPA/IPI. My wife and I visited him when he was posted to India. We will always cherish the private times we shared with him there.He truly was “A man for all seasons.”

– John Hirsch, Former IPA/IPI Vice President

The post In Memoriam: David M. Malone appeared first on International Peace Institute.

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IPI, together with Independent Diplomat cohosted a discussion on November 13th on innovative means to engage non-state actors in multilateral conflict resolution and prevention.

As armed conflicts reach their highest level in decades and the UN Security Council faces mounting criticism for its inability to prevent or resolve contemporary crises, there is an urgent need for more effective approaches to international peacemaking. One gap in current approaches is the lack of meaningful engagement with non-state actors, including armed groups, political opposition parties, and civil society movements—particularly within the Security Council. To fill this gap, the nonprofit diplomatic advisory group Independent Diplomat (ID) launched the “Meet the Parties” (MTP) platform.

MTP offers an impartial, confidential platform for UN Security Council members to engage multilaterally with non-state stakeholders—many of them politically contested. Over the past two years, ID has facilitated dozens of discreet MTP meetings between Security Council members and non-state actors from Afghanistan, Cameroon, South Sudan, Syria, and Sudan. MTP demonstrates that informal, unconventional approaches to diplomacy can positively influence both affected parties and international stakeholders.

This event presented a new policy report with findings from the first comprehensive assessment of the MTP initiative. The report spotlights practical methods to strengthen the inclusion of non-state actors in Security Council consultations. It also explores the transferability of these lessons beyond the Security Council, including to the UN Peacebuilding Commission, the African Union, and other multilateral forums.

Speakers:
Marlene Spoerri, Director of US and UN, Independent Diplomat
Reza Afshar, OBE, Executive Director, Independent Diplomat
Andreas Løvold, Deputy Permanent Representative of Norway to the UN
Larry Johnson, Former UN Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs
Kevin Irakoze, Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Mariam Jalabi, Co-founder, Syrian Women’s Political Movement

Moderator:
Jenna Russo, Director of Research, Head of the Brian Urquhart Center for Peace Operations, International Peace Institute

The post Meet the Parties: Strengthening Multilateral Diplomacy through Inclusive Engagement with Non-state Actors appeared first on International Peace Institute.

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IPI and the International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN) cohosted an interactive event on “The Ghosts of 1325: Past, Present, Future” followed by a reception, on October 29th.

Bringing together women peacebuilders, civil society leaders, member states, UN agencies, and media, this event was hosted in partnership with the Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom to the United Nations, the Permanent Mission of Norway to the United Nation, the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC), Legal Action Worldwide (LAW), the PAIMAN Alumni Foundation, the Association for War Affected Women (AWAW), the Center for Civil Society and Democracy (CCSD), the Coalition for the UN We Need (C4UN), and Wo=Men Dutch Gender Platform.

Speakers invoked “The Ghosts of 1325”—carrying the voices of the past, present, and future to confront the Security Council with its unfilled promises. The event provided an opportunity for reflecting on, reckoning with, and renewing collective commitment to the vision of Resolution 1325.

On October 31, 2000, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security (WPS)—the first resolution to recognize women’s leadership and participation as critical to peace and security. From the outset, civil society has driven the WPS agenda, setting its vision, pushing governments to act, and holding them accountable while leading implementation on the ground.

Twenty-five years later, despite normative progress, women’s inclusion in peace processes remains the exception rather than the rule. Implementation has too often lagged behind rhetoric, and the WPS agenda risks being sidelined in transactional geopolitics. An agenda rooted in the prevention of war and humanization of security stands in contrast to current trends of rising violence and militarization. Marking the 25th anniversary offers an opportunity not merely to commemorate, but to provoke urgent reflection: What if 1325 were fully realized? What if it fades into irrelevance?

Speakers:
Phoebe Donnelly, Senior Fellow and Head of Women, Peace, and Security, International Peace Institute
Andreas Løvold, Deputy Permanent Representative of Norway to the United Nations
Paul Shrubsole, Acting WPS Focal Point, Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom to the United Nations
Sanam Anderlini, Founder and CEO, International Civil Society Action Network (ICAN)
Visaka Dharmadasa, Founder and Chair, Association of War Affected Women
Cerue Garlo, Women’s Alliance for Security Leadership
Mossarat Qadeem, Founder and President PAIMAN Alumni Trust
Helena Gronberg, Program Director, ICAN
France Bognon, Managing Director and Co-CEO, ICAN
Rajaa Altalli, Co-Founder, Center for Civil Society and Democracy
Adam Lupel, Executive Director, Coalition for the UN We Need
Mobina S.B. Jaffer, Former Canadian Senator representing British Columbia
Anwarul K. Chowdhury, Founder of Global Movement for the Culture of Peace

The post The Ghosts of 1325: Past, Present, Future appeared first on International Peace Institute.

With just five years left to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, the global financing gap has widened to $4.3 trillion per year. The Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD), held in Sevilla in July 2025, sought to renew multilateral consensus around mobilizing resources for sustainable development.

This issue brief by David Mulet analyzes the Compromiso de Sevilla—the conference’s negotiated outcome—and the Sevilla Platform for Action (SPA), a voluntary registry of 130 coalitions and initiatives. It highlights how new mechanisms on sovereign debt, blended finance, and climate-linked instruments are translating commitments into action. 

At the same time, the brief underscores persistent gaps in systemic reform, including of the international debt architecture, international tax cooperation, the large-scale reallocation of special drawing rights, governance of the multilateral development banks, and climate finance. It argues that closing the global financing gap requires bridging intergovernmental commitments with voluntary innovation to ensure that experimentation accumulates into structural change. 

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The post The Financing for Development Agenda after Sevilla: Aligning Commitments and Actions appeared first on International Peace Institute.

Resolution 2719—adopted in December 2023—established a framework for using UN assessed contributions to fund up to 75 percent of AU-led peace operations authorized by the Security Council. Yet nearly two years later, the Security Council has yet to authorize an AU-led peace support operation that could mobilize funding under Resolution 2719 after efforts to apply the framework in Somalia failed to achieve consensus.

In this context, the International Peace Institute (IPI), the Stimson Center, and Security Council Report convened a workshop on September 10, 2025, to assess progress in implementing UN Security Council Resolution 2719. Participants discussed the AU–UN joint roadmap for implementing the resolution, the political and financial challenges that have emerged, and lessons from the failed attempt to apply the resolution to the AU Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM).

The workshop underscored the need to maintain political momentum behind the resolution, secure predictable and sustainable funding, and strengthen coordination between the AU and UN. Participants highlighted that its success will depend on flexible, context-specific implementation and on demonstrating tangible results for peace and security on the ground.

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