Unintended Consequences of the Primacy of Politics in UN Peace Operations

Abstract

Abstract The trend towards a more robust use of force in UN peacekeeping operations has received considerable attention from scholars pointing to the risk of unintended consequences. Since the report of the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations, the primacy of politics is expected from all UN peace operations. The unintended consequences stemming from this primacy of politics has received considerably less attention, especially in the context of the UN’s political missions. Through an analysis of the UN’s engagement with the crisis in Burundi in 2015–2016, the article shows how the UN’s political role was implemented in a specific case. The case demonstrates that unintended consequences from the primacy of politics have overlaps with those related to robust peacekeeping, but also differ on important aspects.