The Trump administration has proposed scaling back the United Nations’ commitments to expanding the role of women in peacekeeping operations and strengthening the world body’s ability to counter disinformation against U.N. blue helmets, several diplomatic sources told Devex.
The United States floated the proposals last week in closed-door negotiations with a special committee of troop-contributing countries — known as the C34 countries — over an annual report detailing the U.N.’s peacekeeping priorities for the year. It also proposed removing some references to the words gender and inclusion and replacing references to “international law” and “international humanitarian law” with “relevant legal obligations,” signaling a sharp break from the U.S.’s historical role as the guarantor of the rules-based international system.
It remains unclear how successful the U.S. will be in securing the changes during talks, which will play out over the coming weeks. However, the effort reflected the new administration’s efforts to rewrite the terms of international agreements hammered out over decades of intergovernmental negotiations and to impose its more conservative cultural values on the international system.
About the author
Colum Lynch
Colum Lynch is an award-winning reporter and Senior Global Reporter for Devex. He covers the intersection of development, diplomacy, and humanitarian relief at the United Nations and beyond. Prior to Devex, Colum reported on foreign policy and national security for Foreign Policy Magazine and the Washington Post. Colum was awarded the 2011 National Magazine Award for digital reporting for his blog Turtle Bay. He has also won an award for groundbreaking reporting on the U.N.’s failure to protect civilians in Darfur.
