UN Leadership

Abstract Chapter 5 examines the relationship between UN leadership of a peace process and the prevention of civil war recurrence. First, it explores how and why UN leadership may help prevent relapses into large-scale conflict-related violence using the typical case of Sierra Leone. Second, it examines potential counterfactuals and limitations of UN intervention through the deviant case study of Burundi. This relationship is explored through congruence analysis based on original interviews with mediators and negotiators, official documents (including peace agreements and official reports), and the academic and grey literature on UN mediation and on individual peace processes. We find that UN leadership can contribute to the prevention of civil war recurrence when UN mediators are perceived as legitimate and expert, and when the organization has the mandate to lead the peace negotiations and the financial, diplomatic, and military resources to drive the implementation of an agreement. Under these conditions, the UN can support the creation of multi-level coalitions of actors invested in concluding, implementing, and monitoring stable peace settlements.