“In 2015, the United Nations (UN) took stock of three key global peace and security review processes, all of
which contain various observations and recommendations to better prepare, inform, and potentially reform, the organisation. This Policy and Practice Brief (PPB) seeks to unpack these reviews, identify common
threads and elements and provide insight on some of the deeper, underlying challenges and concerns that
the organisation will need to address during this considerable period of institutional introspection — amidst
growing international disillusionment and dissonance over the current state of global peace and security. The PPB begins by illustrating what led to the reviews and how each had been conducted. This is followed by an examination of the content of each of the reports, with particular regard to the respective central arguments, observations and general recommendations. The PPB then underscores the common threads contained in
each report and provides an analysis of whether these reviews adequately consider the UN’s institutional responses, structure, and capabilities in light of the most pressing emergent international peace and security trends and developments. The PPB concludes by qualifying and drawing attention to the two overarching policy directions that currently confront the organisation, either toward some form of greater structural expansion or something more geared toward a deeper institutional rationalisation.”
