NEW HORIZON - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is “New Horizon?”
The New Horizon process of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the Department of Field Support is designed to:
- Assess the major policy and strategy dilemmas facing UN peacekeeping today and over the coming years; and
- Reinvigorate the ongoing dialogue with stakeholders on possible solutions to better calibrate UN peacekeeping to meet current and future requirements.
To date, the process has included the development of a DPKO/DFS “non-paper” called A New Partnership Agenda: Charting a New Horizon for UN Peacekeeping 
. This non-paper has been circulated to Member States and will form the basis of in-depth consultations in the coming months. The DPKO/DFS non-paper is not an official policy document of the departments or of the United Nations Organization. Rather, it is an effort to informally and transparently share a DPKO/DFS assessment of the present and future dilemmas for UN peacekeeping and to launch an intensive dialogue with Member States and UN partners on their views prior to the departments’ official dialogue with the upcoming General Assembly.
Why is there another Peacekeeping Review?
Periodic review and continuous improvement are the hallmarks of a strong, professional institution, particularly when operating at the scale and tempo of modern UN peacekeeping. United Nations peacekeeping must adjust and adapt to meet new and emerging challenges. It can only do so if the peacekeeping partnership – comprised of the Security Council, the troop- and police-contributing countries, the General Assembly, the UN Secretariat, and the Secretariat’s many partners – are able to collectively determine its future direction.
The New Horizon process does not replace previous reform initiatives, including the 2000 Brahimi Review, Peace Operations 2010 and restructuring of DPKO and DFS. It builds on past reforms to realize outstanding recommendations and develop fresh thinking on how to manage the new complexities and growing scale of UN peacekeeping.
What are the main elements of the New Horizon non-paper?
The non-paper calls for a renewed global partnership for UN peacekeeping that encompasses the Secretariat, members of the Security Council, the General Assembly, contributors of personnel and financial resources, and our many partners from within and outside the UN system. This global partnership has three dimensions:
- A partnership in purpose: a shared vision of the purpose of UN peacekeeping and a more inclusive approach to designing, planning and managing UN peacekeeping missions.
- A partnership in action: agreed approaches and capacities required to implement this vision on the ground and to deliver critical tasks, as well as manage crises.
- A partnership for the future: a collective dedication to building and sustaining the right capabilities for UN peacekeeping into the future, by examining new ways of drawing on global resources and flexible, innovative measures to deploy, support and sustain peacekeepers in the field.
It exhorts the partners in UN peacekeeping to reinvigorate their peacekeeping partnership to lay out a common set of goals in all of these areas to strengthen the instrument.
How will this process impact the future of peacekeeping operations?
The goal of the New Horizon initiative is to help forge a greater consensus on the future direction of UN peacekeeping and agree a set of immediate, medium and long-term goals to strengthen the enterprise. The achievement of these goals will bring greater clarity, predictability and capacity to the way in which UN peacekeeping missions operate.
Without a common direction for strengthening UN peacekeeping for the future, the day-to-day challenges of running 15 parallel and often complex peacekeeping missions may lead to a strategic drift within the peacekeeping partnership that prevents it from preparing UN peacekeeping to adapt to the challenges it will face tomorrow.
The DPKO/DFS non-paper outlines a commitment by the two Departments to improve performance in key areas under its authority, while highlighting additional challenges with which the wider UN peacekeeping partnership is grappling.
For comments, questions or further information on the New Horizon initiative, please contact us.