UN Peacekeeping Under the Knife?

Posted: May 17th, 2017

By Richard Caplan

Richard Caplan is Professor of International Relations at Oxford University. He is the author and editor of several books, including International Governance of War-torn Territories: Rule and Reconstruction, Exit Strategies and State Building, and The Measure of Peace (forthcoming).

UN peacekeeping is rarely headline news, but when the Trump Administration announced in March that it was seeking to make cuts of $1 billion in funding for UN peacekeeping, the announcement attracted wide attention.

The United States has agreed to contribute $2.2 billion toward the cost of UN peacekeeping activities this year. That sum represents 28.5 percent of the total UN peacekeeping budget of $7.87 billion. The size of the assessment is determined each year by the UN General Assembly on the basis of a complex formula that takes into consideration a country’s relative economic strength, among other factors. Permanent members of the Security Council – the United States among them – are required to pay an additional share. The formula is agreed to by all UN member states, including the United States.

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UN Peacekeeping Under the Knife?

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