International Peacekeeping Activities

Description

U.S. contributions to UN peacekeeping activities help stabilize countries undergoing conflict by protecting civilians from violence, facilitating humanitarian aid, disarming and reintegrating former combatants, training local police forces to ensure law and order and supporting free and fair elections and peaceful transitions of power.

What Does This Buy?

Pays the U.S. share of assessed expenses for 14 current UN peacekeeping operations in countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), South Sudan, Mali, Central African Republic, and Lebanon.

Justification for the Request

• International Peacekeeping activities are cost effective. A February 2018 GAO report found that the cost to American taxpayers of a UN operation is eight times cheaper than deploying a comparable U.S. force.
• UN peacekeeping activities are a prime example of global burden sharing. While the U.S. is a large financial contributor, we provide very few uniformed personnel (currently less than 70 troops and police in a total force of 90,000). Over 120 other countries, including U.S. allies and partners such as Jordan, Morocco, Ghana, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, and Italy, fill the gap.
• Research has shown that peacekeeping supports civilian protection. One study examined monthly civilian death tolls from civil wars in sub-Saharan Africa over 15 years and found that in places where no peacekeeping troops were deployed, the monthly average of civilian deaths was 106. However, in instances where at least 8,000 UN troops were present, the average monthly death toll fell to less than two.
• Funding peacekeeping assessments is critical to improving conditions where peacekeepers are deployed and helps facilitate their eventual withdrawal. Long-running UN missions in Liberia (UNMIL) and Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) played crucial roles in fostering stability, facilitating free and fair elections, and allowing hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians return home. As a result, UNOCI and UNMIL closed in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

U.S. Interest

Countries in conflict provide fertile ground for the growth of extremist groups and organized crime, threatening U.S. national security and economic interests. By undertaking a range of stabilization and protection measures, UN peacekeepers help avert the collapse of fragile states, preventing civil wars from metastasizing into full-blown regional conflicts, reducing forced displacement and refugee outflows, and decreasing the likelihood that dormant conflicts will flare up anew.

Bold Vision

• An investment of $2.575 billion allows the U.S. to pay its FY 2020 peacekeeping dues in full and pay its cap-related arrears accrued from FY 2017-2019.
• Fully funding our share of the UN peacekeeping budget would facilitate the deployment of the larger and more robust missions often necessary to protect civilians in conflict zones.

Impact of Cuts

• Cuts could negatively affect the ability of UN forces in South Sudan, Mali, DRC, and other countries to ensure stability, protect civilians, and promote human rights and democratic governance.
• Cuts could reduce U.S. influence at the UN, undermining efforts to achieve our reform priorities and ceding influence to countries such as Russia and China.
• Cuts could result in higher costs of U.S. stabilization operations where U.S. taxpayers pay the entire amount without the benefit of burden sharing.