The role of training in the success or failure of UN peacekeeping operations is generally understated. It is often taken for granted or considered less relevant to the outcome of an operation. But the UN’s historical experience has shown that underprepared peacekeepers cost lives and endanger missions. In practice, special training is needed because UN peacekeeping involves more than the basic military tasks for which soldiers are—or should be—already trained. If soldiers might have managed in early UN observation missions, tasked with straightforward and limited mandates, this is not the case in modern multidimensional operations, where a number...

During the Cold War, peacekeeping developed in an ad hoc fashion and UN member states paid limited attention to training. Given the relatively straightforward nature of most early observation operations as well as the small number of countries actively involved in peacekeeping, training activities for prospective UN peacekeepers were limited and provided by a handful of training centers.²

In 1965 the UN General Assembly created the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations (C-34) to conduct a comprehensive annual review of peacekeeping operations in all their aspects.³In 1989, a C-34 report encouraged member states “to establish national training programmes for military and...

The following case study examines the Center of Excellence for Stability Police Units (CoESPU), created in 2005. It provides an assessment of its activities by examining how CoESPU has discharged its mandate, in particular through its cooperation with the UN and its experience in evaluating its courses.

Stability police training was chosen as a case study for this paper because of the growing number of police officers participating in UN peacekeeping operations, as well as the importance of their tasks. In addition, stability police have a relatively welldefined and limited role, which for training purposes makes it easier to define...

1. The UN’s training strategy remains in its early stages and needs to mature. Assessing the quality of training provided to peacekeepers should be seen in the broader context of measuring their effectiveness, both individually and as contingents. Presently, however, there is no agreement among parties involved on systematic performance evaluations of peacekeepers.

Member states, including through the C-34, should provide clear and consistent political guidance to strengthen accountability, and support measures that enable the evaluation of UN peacekeeping as a prerequisite for targeted and needs-based training.

DPKO/DFS should develop an objective methodology for evaluating the performance of uniformed personnel in...