Are the days of multi-country peace missions numbered? According to the opinion of specialists from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri), these essential operations are indeed threatened by the increase in geopolitical tensions, political pressures, but also the lack of financing.
According to the report published by the international organization, the number of people deployed in peacekeeping operations around the world at the end of last year stood at around 79,000 people, a decrease of almost half compared to 2016.
It is also in Africa and Asia that we find the countries which contribute the most to the different missions; Uganda (4657 soldiers), Ethiopia (3446 soldiers) and Kenya (2158 soldiers) are the main “suppliers” in this field on the African continent.
In Asia, Nepal (4,299 troops), India (4,090 troops), Pakistan (2,386 troops), Indonesia (1,898 troops) and China (1,635 troops) all contribute to different missions.
Finally, we must also note the significant contribution of Italy (1,857 soldiers) and the United States (1,175 men), according to data collected by Sipri, still as of the end of December 2025.
Africa, the lion’s share
Last year, there were some 58 peacekeeping operations, including 18 under the auspices of the United Nations, and 34 under the leadership of regional organizations and alliances.
It was the stabilization mission in the Central African Republic that required the most troops last year, with more than 15,000. In South Sudan, more than 12,000 people were trying to avoid further outbreaks of violence, while a similar number of people were stationed in Somalia, still on the continent African.
Africa, and more precisely the Democratic Republic of Congo, also hosted a stabilization mission, still under the control of the UN, and with more than 9,600 men.
Finally, in the Middle East, the United Nations was still operating, at the end of last year, a force of nearly 8,000 soldiers, to try to ensure peace between Israel and Lebanon. A number which undoubtedly changed with the outbreak of a new war between Israel and its northern neighbor, in the wake of the resumption of hostilities between Washington and Tehran.
Moreover, for the single year 2025, the drop in numbers reached 17%, the report indicates. A statistic that makes us fear the worst.
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A more than serious situation
“If the situation continues, we could witness a dramatic weakening of multilateral conflict management and the almost total marginalization of institutions like the United Nations, due to a combination of financial, political and geopolitical factors,” explains, in a press release, Dr Jaïr van der Lijn, director of the Peace Operations and Conflict Management program. Sipri conflicts.
Still according to the latter, such a situation could lead to an increase in wars, wars which will have catastrophic consequences for civilians, “as States abandon long-established norms”.
One of the reasons behind this crisis is a chronic lack of funding; Last year, donors failed to meet their monetary commitments, creating a shortfall of around US$2 billion for peacekeeping operations, or more than a third of the total budget for 2025.
This deficit has also forced significant cuts.
Sipri also indicates that due to high tensions in the United Nations Security Council, where “firm demands and threats of veto from permanent members have complicated decisions regarding the renewal of mandates”, peacekeeping missions which could easily appear essential will thus be canceled shortly.
In Lebanon, it is the 8,000 peacekeepers deployed there who will have to pack up by the end of December this year.
Still according to the authors of the report, while no new UN mission has been approved since 2014, regional initiatives have not proven to be as effective as those led by the international organization.
In fact, there is absolutely no viable alternative to crisis management under UN auspices, it is claimed.
And therefore, to ensure the maintenance of these different missions, but also, in a broader perspective, to facilitate the resolution of conflicts and the avoidance of a deterioration of the geopolitical and security context, the specialists of Sipri call for a sustainability of the financing granted to peace missions, but also for more solid commitments on the part of the UN member states.
“The collapse of multilateral conflict management is not inevitable. There is clearly broad support in principle for United Nations peacekeeping operations,” underlines Claudia Pfeifer Cruz, principal researcher for Sipri’s Peace Operations and Conflict Management program.
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