United Nations Peace Operations and the Brahimi Report

The purpose of this paper is to assess the Brahimi Report focused specifically on the question if the recommendations of the Panel will make the United Nations again a credible peace operations organization, given the challenges of the future. The scope of this research is the peacekeeping part of a nation building effort that is executed by military forces. The paper defines the future challenge as complex peacekeeping in failing or failed states. It discusses the Report's recommendations concerning peacekeeping doctrine and strategy, mission planning, including mandate, troop levels, unity of effort and communications with troop contributing nations, intelligence, quality of forces and readiness and UN Headquarters support. The analysis is done by comparing the recommendations with lessons learned in similar operations, and the U.S. and NATO Peacekeeping and Peace Support Operations doctrines.