HeyJaredBlue Helmets, Red Tape
A weekly column on the interplay of substantive policy, intergovernmental politics, and bureaucratic processes in UN peace operations and institutional reform initiatives.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 5
- Latest publication
- Sep 10, 2026
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- Earliest in this view
- Jul 9, 2026
Latest issues
All the structural reform discussions are backwards (opens the original)
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After eighteen months of internal consultations and intergovernmental deliberations, it seems as if the only tangible outcome of the structural realignment track of the UN80 initiative—workstream 3—will be the consolidation of UNITAR and the UNSSC into the UN Institute for Capability and Learning Innovation (UNICLI), which the General Assembly adopted last week.When Secretary-General Guterres launched the UN80 initiative, he announced to member states that the effort would yield proposals on “<a
Nothing new in the peace operations review (opens the original)
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It was originally expected in January. Then we were told to expect it by the end of June. But it wasn't until yesterday that the long-awaited report of the Secretary-General on the future of all forms of United Nations peace operations finally saw the light of day. A more detailed analysis will have to wait for another time, but I’ve pulled together a some immediate reactions after a first read of the report.I was not far from the mark when I predicted, over a year ago, that the report would reh
Are peace operations enabling authoritarian conflict management? (opens the original)
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I was hoping to write a commentary on the report on the peace operations review this week, but we’re just going to have to keep waiting.When the Fifth Committee concluded its negotiations on peacekeeping financing on 30 June, the agreement on changing the credit return methodology understandably attracted the most attention. What slipped under the radar, however, is the failure of the Fifth Committee to take advantage of the rare temporal conjunction this year of the periodic reviews of the pers
Living with backroom deals in the Secretary-General selection process (opens the original)
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The town hall debate this evening with the candidates running to be the tenth UN Secretary-General takes place as the Security Council prepares for the start of its straw poll process to determine who to recommend to the General Assembly. There are currently six candidates in the running and several more waiting in the wings, no doubt waiting to see the outcome of the initial rounds of the straw polling to decide whether to enter the race. There is, after all, no deadline for entering the race.A
The end of UNSOS? Takeaways from the U.S. announcement (opens the original)
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The days seem numbered for the UN Support Office in Somalia. On 1 July, the U.S. Mission in Addis Ababa sent a diplomatic note to the African Union (AU) Commission informing it thatthe United States will not support the continuation of the UN Support Office in Somalia (UNSOS) beyond the current authorization for the AU Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) ending December 31, 2026.The United States has no objection to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) renewing the Chapte
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