ABSTRACT

After a decade of remarkable growth in the early 2000s, UN peacekeeping has entered a period of sharp contraction. This trend has been especially severe for civilian peacekeepers, who play vital though often neglected roles in UN operations: the number of civilian peacekeeper positions has shrunk by 37% since 2010. This article draws on 164 research interviews and the vast Business literature on downsizing to explore the effects of this contraction of the UN’s remaining civilian peacekeepers and the missions that employ them. To conceptualize this impact, the article begins by outlining the contributions a range of civilians – international and national staff, UN Volunteers and contractors – make to UN peacekeeping. Mobilizing insights from Business scholars, it then argues that difficult downsizing processes, high employee commitment, and workforce stratification place UN missions at high risk of ‘downsizing survivor syndrome’: sustained organizational productivity losses due to decreased individual performance and team coherence. The article then confirms empirically that the nature of UN peacekeeping downsizing, job insecurity, and competition among personnel categories pose profound risks to civilian peacekeeper performance and therefore challenge effective mandate implementation. It also highlights that decreased inter-mission mobility due to the contraction of UN peacekeeping overall exacerbates this effect.

摘要

在2000年代初期经历了十年的显着增长之后，联合国维持和平行动进入了急剧收缩的时期。对于民用维持和平人员而言，这一趋势尤其严重，他们在联合国行动中起着至关重要的作用，尽管经常被忽视：自2010年以来，民用维持和平人员的数量减少了37％。本文借鉴了164个研究访谈和有关精简到探索这种收缩对联合国其余平民维和人员以及雇用他们的特派团的影响。为了概念化这种影响，本文首先概述了一系列平民-国际和国家工作人员，联合国志愿人员和承包商-对联合国维持和平的贡献。然后，它动员了商务学者的见解，认为困难的裁员流程，高员工敬业度，以及人员分层，使联合国特派团面临“缩小幸存者综合征规模”的高风险：由于个人绩效和团队凝聚力下降而导致组织生产力持续下降。然后，该文章从经验上证实，联合国维和人员缩编，工作不安全以及人员类别之间竞争的性质对平民维和人员的表现构成深远的风险，因此对有效执行任务构成了挑战。它还强调指出，由于联合国维和行动的收缩，特派团之间的流动性下降，加剧了这一影响。然后，该文章从经验上证实，联合国维和人员缩编，工作不安全以及人员类别之间竞争的性质对平民维和人员的表现构成深远的风险，因此对有效执行任务构成了挑战。它还强调指出，由于联合国维和行动的收缩，特派团之间的流动性下降，加剧了这一影响。然后，该文章从经验上证实，联合国维和人员缩编，工作不安全以及人员类别之间竞争的性质对平民维和人员的表现构成深远的风险，因此对有效执行任务构成了挑战。它还强调指出，由于联合国维和行动的收缩，特派团之间的流动性下降，加剧了这一影响。