Description
The paper is driven by the theoretical puzzle that the UNSC mandates regional peacekeeping missions under the framework of Chapter VII of the UN Charter and deploys Special Political Missions into the host states of regional peacekeeping missions. We argue that the mandating practice of the UNSC has transformed international peacekeeping into a peacekeeping institutional complex. Two separated and clearly defined realms of authority have become intertwined through a transfer of authority, and they have become even more complex through the co-optation of peacekeeping missions led by ROs through Special Political Missions. This has made peacekeeping operations an area of competing authority claims, in effect a peacekeeping complex, where an array of overlapping and non-hierarchical regimes concerning a particular issue generates system effects that could lead to inefficiency of the whole regime. By using the dataset MILINDA, we empirically investigate whether a peacekeeping complex exists by probing the strength of the association between the establishment of RO-led peacekeeping operations, and the one of Chapter VII mandates and Special Political Missions. While the empirical evidence points to the emergence of a peacekeeping institutional complex, what this means for the distribution of authority between the UNSC and ROs is not yet clear. This is part of the challenge of the peacekeeping institutional complex.
Key words: peacekeeping, peacekeeping institutional complex, regime complexity, authority, legitimacy, hierarchy, UNSC-RO relationship, regional organisation, UNSC
