How Can South Africa Champion Peacekeeping in the UN Security Council?

South Africa was elected to join the UN Security Council (UNSC) as a non-permanent member on June 8, 2018 for the 2019-2020 term, replacing Ethiopia as the third African Council member and joining Equatorial Guinea and Ivory Coast. This is the country's third UNSC membership, following its prior roles in 2007-2008 and 2011-2012.

South Africa's term on the UNSC will be an important opportunity for the country to implement its foreign policy priorities. This includes how the country sees and aims to promote peacekeeping operations as a critical tool for responding to international peace and security threats.

A recent paper by the Institute for Security Studies reflected what South Africa could realistically expect to achieve in the Security Council, based on current trends, Council dynamics, and expectations for the country.

South Africa joins the UNSC in a highly divided global environment. The Council has often faced paralysis, particularly in issues related to the Syrian conflict. Even African issues, which compose the largest total number of crises discussed in the Council, are becoming increasingly polarized, especially through the 5 permanent members. Such a divide was seen, for instance, when France and the United States could not reach conditions on the involvement of the UN on the deployment of the G5 Sahel force.

Peacekeeping has been often caught in the middle of geopolitical differences between Council members. Since the launch of the High-Level Panel on Peace Operations (HIPPO) report, in 2015, a number of initiatives by the UN and its member states have been launched to enhance the effectiveness and quality of peacekeepers. In early 2018, the UN Secretary-General launched the Action for Peacekeeping (A4P) initiative, aimed at mobilizing political action around the UN peacekeeping reform process.

Increasingly one can identify open criticism by Council members on the inefficiency of the UNSC, which led to heated discussions around the reduction of budget contributions to peacekeeping. Recent debates on peacekeeping in the Council have focused on strengthening accountability, behavior, and leadership as a measurement of the performance of peacekeeping operations.

Non-permanent members of the UN Security Council, also called the E10, are also caught in the middle of strategic differences between permanent members. E10 members have, in recent times, focused on finding creative ways in playing a more effective role in the Council. That enabled many E10 members to show that, through strategic alliances and greater cooperation, they are able to influence the work of the Council, as stated by the Security Council report. Countries like Australia and Luxembourg were key in drafting decisions on humanitarian access in Syria, which Sweden has recently taken.

What can South Africa be Expected to Contribute to UN Peacekeeping Debates?

In recent years, South Africa lost some of its visibility in UN peace and security matters, as identified in the recent study by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). This lack of visibility was also related to its peacekeeping contributions. While peacekeeping has become a priority for South African foreign policy since the late 1990s and was presented as one of the key areas of focus during its campaign to join the Council, the country has reduced its contributions to UN operations in recent years. Currently, the country has 1,242 deployed to UN operations, most of them in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Source: UN Peacekeeping Website

As mentioned, South Africa is replacing Ethiopia as one of the three African members in the Security Council. Ethiopia, the largest troop-contributing country (TCC) to the UN, was one of the key champions on peacekeeping during its term in the Council, providing a space for another African member state to bring views on how to strengthen the effectiveness of peacekeeping in the continent and beyond.

It is important that South Africa avoid just pursuing thematic debates in the council simply for the sake of visibility. In interviews in March 2018, some observers of the UN Security Council mentioned that often E10 members focused on thematic discussions, especially during their presidency month, without much emphasis on practical solutions or pragmatic approaches.

South Africa should capitalize on identifying practical ways of overcoming some of the key deadlocks faced by peacekeeping discussions in the Council. For instance, ill-defined discussions as stabilization, the role of ad hoc security initiatives as the G5 Sahel, and engagement of peacekeepers in counter-terrorism could benefit some of the more specific and practical solutions.

Also, UN-AU relations, which was widely pushed by South Africa in its previous tenures in the UN Security Council, has gained importance in debates in New York and is in need for practical solutions that can advance discussions through practical implementation. However, in the last years, discussions have often been paralyzed by disagreements regarding the modalities surrounding the funding of African peace operations.

Interviewees mentioned the need for new ways of overcoming such an impasse, as well as bringing new ways of strengthening the relationship between the two organizations. Moving beyond just focusing on the role of the joint sessions between UNSC and AU Peace and Security Council, and also ensuring that there is appropriate follow up on decisions could be an important entry point for South Africa.

An internal questioning of its own role will certainly benefit the direction the country takes on matters related to peacekeeping. Although South Africa remains generally active in peacekeeping operations, it is currently focused on its role in the Force Intervention Brigade (FIB), in the DRC, a country where it has had a South African Force Commander for a number of years. Therefore, the future of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) will certainly remain an important axis of South Africa's peacekeeping positions in the Council.

While its roles as a troop-contributing country are important, especially in relation to discussions about the Force Intervention Brigade in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it is a pitfall to be seen solely as a TCC. One peacekeeping analyst told the ISS that "…we tend to see African states discussing peacekeeping issues when it relates to their own roles as troop-contributing countries (TCCs) or when it relates to UN-AU relations, but we see little African participation in broader conceptual and practical peacekeeping discussions."

Peacekeeping will certainly be a priority for South Africa in its membership in the UNSC. However, if the country wants to positively contribute to enhancing the effectiveness of peacekeeping as a tool for the UN, it needs to be pragmatic and have clarity in its attempts to contribute to critical debates that will occur in the next two years. And in doing that, it would go beyond just debating its role as a TCC, but more holistically contributing so that peacekeeping becomes more effective, responsive, and pragmatic.

 Gustavo de Carvalho is a Senior Researcher at the Peace Operations and Peacebuilding Programme at the Institute for Security Studies, in South Africa.