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ABSTRACT
The cholera outbreak brought to Haiti in 2010 as a consequence of wastewater mismanagement in one of the UN Stabilisation Mission’s camps drew attention to the concrete material footprint of UN peace operations. Since the 2000s, UN peacekeeping missions have been increasingly confronted with environmental challenges. Multiple transformations in terms of norms and practices resulted from these environmental concerns. Drawing on data generated through interviews and participant observation, this article explores how environmental concerns are integrated in UN peacekeeping operations and develops a two-fold argument. First, I argue that the inclusion of environmental concerns in UN peacekeeping relies on the environmentalization of peacekeeping practices. It consists of heterogeneous elements – standards, expertise, training, mainstreaming, equipment management – which focus on the ecological footprint of UN peacekeeping. Second, I show that environmentalizing peacekeeping contributes to the securitization of the environment. By understanding the dynamics of inclusion of environmental concerns, this article sheds light on one of the ways through which emerging issues broaden and widen UN peacekeeping practices.
Acknowledgements
For their feedback on earlier versions of this paper, I am grateful to Claudia Aradau, Georgina Holmes, John Karlsrud, Marion Laurence, Kseniya Oksamytna, Emily Paddon Rhoads, the participants of the EWIS workshop organized in Cardiff in June 2017, and the two anonymous reviewers. I would also like to warmly thank the UN officials who provided valuable information for this article. As always, all errors and omissions remain my own.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
About the author
Dr Lucile Maertens is Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Lausanne. She is also a Research Fellow at Sciences Po-CERI, CNRS. Her main research interests relate to international organizations’ action at the intersection between security and environmental issues.
Notes
1 Security Council Resolution, S/RES/1542.
2 Secretary-General, New Approach to Cholera in Haiti, 4.
3 Cravioto et al., Final Report of the Independent Panel, 4.
4 UNEP, Greening the Blue Helmets, 8.
5 Frerichs, Deadly River.
6 Report of the Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, 4.
7 Secretary-General, New Approach to Cholera in Haiti, 3.
8 General Assembly Resolution, A/RES/71/161, 1.
9 Secretary-General, New Approach to Cholera in Haiti, 13.
10 The data presented in this article covers the developments up until early 2018. This article supplements and updates previous analyses and results published in Maertens, “Quand les Casques bleus passent au vert”.
11 The article mentions the names and abreviations used at the time of our investigation. DPKO has since been renamed DPO (Departement of Peace Operations) and DFS is now DOS (Department of Operational Support).
12 Most of the interviews cited here were conducted in New York City, while some were conducted by phone while in position as a volunteer within DPET.
13 I interviewed three categories of UN workers: senior management staff in charge of missions' programming, former field officers with experience in different operations, personnel with significant institutional memory. I also conducted interviews and fieldwork within UNEP, a key policy entrepreneur in merging environment and security within the UN. Most of the research participants asked to remain anonymous, dates and locations will be indicated instead.
14 Autesserre, Peaceland, 31–2.
15 Le Billon and Nicholls, “Ending 'Resource Wars'”.
16 Le Billon, “Bankrupting Peace Spoilers”.
17 See also Conca, An Unfinished Foundation.
18 Conca and Dabelko, Environmental Peacemaking.
19 Maas, Carius, and Wittich, “From Conflict to Cooperation?”; Swain and Öjendal, Routledge Handbook of Environmental Conflicts and Peacebuilding.
20 Conca, Thwaites, and Lee. “Climate Change and the UN Security Council”; Scott and Ku, Climate Change and the UN Security Council.
21 Diehl, “Mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation”.
22 UNEP, Greening the Blue Helmets.
23 Liljedahl et al., “Environmental Impact Assessment in Peacekeeping Missions”; Liljedahl and Waleij, “Assessing the Cumulative Environmental Footprint”.
24 Borla, Walej, and Liljedahl, “From Policies to Practice”.
25 Maertens and Shoshan, Greening Peacekeeping.
26 Njuguna, “Greening Peacekeeping and Peace-enforcement Operations”.
27 Hull et al., Managing Unitended Consequences of Peace Support Operations.
28 Buzan, Waever, and de Wilde, A New Framework for Analysis, 25.
29 C.A.S.E., “Critical Approaches to Security in Europe”.
30 Balzacq, Securitisation Theory.
31 Diez, von Lucke, and Wellmann, The securitisation of climate change; Detraz and Betsill, “Climate change and environmental security”; Floyd, Security and the Environment; McDonald, Security, the Environment and Emancipation; Methmann and Rothe, “Politics for the Day after Tomorrow”; Trombetta, “Rethinking the Securitisation of the Environment”.
32 Buzan, Waever, and de Wilde, A New Framework for Analysis.
33 Le Billon, “Natural resources, Armed Conflicts”; Penny, “Greening the Security Council”; Webersik, “Securitising Climate Change”.
34 Floyd, Security and the Environment.
35 Trombetta, “Rethinking the Securitisation of the Environment”.
36 Acselrad, “The ‘Environmentalisation of Social Struggles’”, 103.
37 Elbe, Security and Global Health.
38 Oels, “From ‘Securitisation’ of Climate Change”.
39 Maertens and Baillat, “The Partial Climatisation of Migrations”.
40 Trombetta, “Environmental Security and Climate Change”.
41 Oels, “From ‘Securitisation’ of Climate Change”, 197.
42 Marcus and Saka, “Assemblage”.
43 Interview with an official from DFS (Logistics Support Division), New York, February 2013.
44 Interview with an official from DFS, New York, February 2013.
45 The position of environmental officer has been defined in the 2009 policy, as explained below.
46 Participant observation within DPKO and DFS.
47 Interview with an official from DFS (Logistics Support Division), New York, January 2013.
48 Interview with an official from DFS, New York, February 2013.
49 UNEP, Greening the Blue Helmets, 8.
50 Laurence, “An ‘Impartial’ Force?”.
51 Pugh, “Peacekeeping and Critical Theory”; Zanotti, “Imagining Democracy, Building Unsustainable Institutions”.
52 Security Council Resolution, S/RES/2100.
53 Participant observation within DPKO and DFS.
54 Interview with a former official from DPKO, New York, February 2013.
55 Interview with an official from DFS (Logistics Support Division), New York, February 2013.
56 Confidential interview, New York, February 2013.
57 Interview with an official from DFS (Logistics Support Division), New York, February 2013.
58 Participant observation within DPKO and DFS.
59 Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, Observations and Recommendations on Cross-cutting Issues, §73; General Assembly Resolution, A/RES/66/264, §53.
60 Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations, Report of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations, §288.
61 UN Security Council. Press Statement on Environmental Management.
62 Maertens and Shoshan, Greening Peacekeeping, 7–8.
63 Security Council Resolution, S/RES/2100, §32.
64 Maertens and Shoshan, Greening Peacekeeping, 8.
65 UN Field Support. DFS Environment Strategy, 1.
66 Data quality on each mission’s environmental footprint is very uneven between operations.
67 Ibid.
68 UN Field Support, Progress So Far.
69 UN Field Support, DFS Environment, 1.
70 UN Field Support, DFS Environment Strategy, 1.
72 Instead, it could have been included in the section ‘What we do’.
73 Participant observation within DPKO and DFS.
74 Ibid.
75 Interview with an official from DFS, New York, February 2013.
76 UN Field Support, DFS Environment, 1.
77 Interview with REACT’s Project Manager, Geneva, June 2018.
78 Maertens and Shoshan, Greening Peacekeeping, 12.
79 Participant observation within DPKO and DFS.
80 UNEP, Greening the Blue Helmets, 82.
81 Interview with an official from DPKO/DFS (ITS), New York, February 2013.
82 Since the interview, the center in charge of civilian pre-deployment training has been moved to Entebbe.
83 Interview with an official from DPKO/DFS (ITS), New York, February 2013.
84 Interview with an official from DPKO/DFS (DPET), New York, February 2013.
85 Participant observation within DPKO and DFS.
87 Ibid.
88 Interview with an official from DFS (Logistics Support Division), New York, January 2013.
89 Holmes, “Situating Agency, Embodied Practices and Norm Implementation in Peacekeeping Training”.
90 Participant observation within DPKO and DFS.
91 UN DPKO-DFS, CPTM Version 2017, “Lesson 3.5: Environment and Natural Resources”.
92 The ‘Greening the Blue’ program was set up in 2010 following Ban Ki-moon’s 2007 request to move ‘towards a climate-neutral UN’.
93 Secretary-General, Global Field Support Strategy.
94 UNEP, Greening the Blue Helmets.
95 Participant observation within DPKO and DFS.
96 UN Field Support, DFS Environment Strategy, 1.
97 UN Field Support, Environmental Good Practice.
98 UN Field Support, Environmental Good Practice, 3.
99 Official wording of the Peacekeeping Best Practices Section.
100 Klein, Laporte, and Saiget, Les bonnes pratiques des organisations internationales, 31.
101 Confidential interview, New York, February 2013.
102 For instance, an online site, COSMOS, has been established to share information on the implementation of environmental practices.
103 Cunliffe, “The Politics of Global Governance”, 323.
104 Laurence, “An ‘Impartial’ Force?”.
105 General Assembly Resolution, A/RES/55/235.
106 Interview with an official from DFS (Logistics Support Division), New York, February 2013.
107 Interview with an official from DPKO (IOT – Middle-East and Western Sahara), New York, January 2013.
108 Interview with REACT’s Project Manager, Geneva, June 2018.
109 Interview with an official from DFS, New York, February 2013.
110 Participant observation within DPKO and DFS.
111 Interview with an official from DFS (Logistics Support Division), New York, January 2013.
112 Interview with an official from DFS (Logistics Support Division), New York, January 2013.
113 Participant observation within DPKO and DFS.
114 Interview with an official from DFS (Logistics Support Division), New York, February 2013.
115 UNEP’s advocacy work on greening peacekeeping operations has been recognized in the 2015 report by the High-level Independent Panel assessing the relevance and effectiveness of UN peace operations.
116 Participant observation within DPKO and DFS.
117 Maertens, “Depoliticisation as a Securitising Move”.
118 UNEP, Addressing the Role of Natural Resources in Conflict and Peacebuilding, 5.
119 Sancin, “Peace Operations and the Protection of the Environment”, 197.
120 Interview with an official from DFS (Logistics Support Division), New York, February 2013.
121 Interview with a former official from DPKO/DFS (DPET), New York, January 2013.
122 Participant observation within DPKO and DFS.
123 UN DPKO-DFS, CPTM Version 2017, “Lesson 3.5: Environment and Natural Resources”, 1.
124 Maertens and Shoshan, Greening Peacekeeping, 19–22.