UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday that UN peace operations must adapt to new realities amid profound changes in the global security landscape.
"Our approaches to peace operations have evolved over the past eight decades, as conflicts changed and possibilities for collective action fluctuated. Now they must adapt again to dramatic new realities," he told an informal plenary meeting of the General Assembly.
Guterres said geopolitics is shifting, with power becoming more diffuse, new poles of influence emerging and new lines of contestation taking shape. The world is witnessing a resurgence of interstate conflicts and an intensification of internal conflicts that are increasingly internationalized, protracted and difficult to resolve.
Citing frequent conflicts, rapidly-changing nature of warfare and less common comprehensive peace agreements, he called for "a reset in how we think about and use peace operations."
Guterres said UN peace operations should place greater emphasis on preventive diplomacy, peacemaking and the peaceful settlement of disputes, while strengthening the good offices of the secretary-general, envoys and the UN Secretariat.
He also called for more agile and cost-effective operations, stronger accountability, enhanced technological capabilities and closer global-regional partnerships.
"Peace operations are, above all, political instruments," Guterres said, stressing that their success depends on appropriate mandates, will of the parties and support from the Security Council, member states, host countries and international partners.
"We must adapt to a changing world. And together, we must find the will -- and the resources -- to forge pathways to peace," he said. ■
