Under the leadership of Xinyu Yuan, the research group “United Nations Peacekeeping and Conflict Management” (UNPAC) has kickstarted its work at PRIF. The members of the research group, Xinyu Yuan, Myriel Julie Mathez, and Frederik Schissler, presented their agenda for the next four years at PRIF on October 27.
Against the backdrop of changing conflict and violence dynamics, structural deficits within the UN, and increasing headwinds for multilateralism, the research group is examining how the United Nations is adapting to new circumstances and conflicts and what these responses say about its capacity to act.
In the first two years, a newly created dataset tracking UN responses in the Gaza war will be used to identify and analyze patterns and sources of the UN's capacity to act. In the following third and fourth year, detailed case studies will be conducted on how UN responses to conflict and crises are developed, omitted, or implemented.
The research group aims to go beyond a mission-oriented approach; instead, UNPAC will focus on the whole spectrum of conflict management measures employed by UN actors. In this way, it aims to contribute to academic and political debates on United Nations reform, institutional effectiveness, organizational capacity, and the changing nature of contemporary conflicts.
Following the presentation of the project, the research group exchanged its initial findings and challenges with the around 40 researchers present.