International Organisations / UN Peacekeeping Missions — UPSC Mains Model Answer

Each mission is authorised by the UN Security Council under Chapter VI or VII of the UN Charter, with mandates ranging from ceasefire monitoring to state-building. Missions such as UNMIL (Liberia), MINUSTAH (Haiti), and UNMISET (Timor-Leste) illustrate the diversity of contexts — civil war recovery, post-earthquake stabilisation, and post-independence institution-building respectively. MINURCAT addressed the spillover of Darfur conflict into Chad and the Central African Republic.

Peacekeeping operations face persistent challenges: unclear rules of engagement, host-nation consent constraints, and resource shortfalls. Sexual exploitation scandals in several missions have prompted the UN to adopt a zero-tolerance policy and strengthen the conduct and discipline framework. Coordination between the Department of Peace Operations and troop-contributing countries remains a structural bottleneck.

India is consistently among the largest troop-contributing nations to UN Peacekeeping, deploying personnel across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. This contribution advances India's multilateral credentials, builds military interoperability, and reinforces its claim for a permanent Security Council seat. Indian engineering and medical units have earned recognition for capacity-building in host nations.

Mission closure requires durable peace conditions, functional national security institutions, and political reconciliation. Premature drawdowns, as seen in some African missions, have led to renewed instability, underscoring the need for sequenced transitions linked to benchmarks rather than fixed timelines.