Why are UN peacekeepers so badly equipped?

An article featured in The Independent, a London-based newspaper, analyzes the material deficiencies of United Nations peacekeepers. Quoting Walter Dorn, a Senior Adviser to the Rideau Institute, the article highlights how a UN peacekeeping force in Libya, should it come into effect, provides a valuable opportunity to modernize the equipment of peacekeepers. As Dorn points out, “peacekeeping is no longer about the blue berets sitting between two sides, but rather a much more complex, multidimensional challenge that involves the UN in counterinsurgency, policing, intelligence gathering and nation building, for which new military technology is essential.”

Additionally, civilian populations,  whom peacekeepers have a mandate to protect, are becoming increasingly ‘tech-savvy’. Modernization has had the extremely powerful potential of making the international community better at making peace rather than war.

The full article can be accessed through the link below.

(Mark Piesing, Why are UN peacekeepers so badly equipped?, The Independent, 9 August 2011)