United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office National Security and International Affairs Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1997-04-08 monographic deposited born digital 60 p. GA 1.13:NSIAD-97-59 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-97-59 P0b002ee180380241 f:ns97059 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-97-59 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-97-59 NSIAD-97-59 International organizations International cooperation International relations Foreign governments Foreign policies Cost effectiveness analysis United Nations military forces Middle East Cyprus Angola Kashmir Western Sahara Israel Syria Iraq Kuwait Persian Gulf Egypt India Pakistan Morocco Algeria Lebanon Greece Turkey Letter Report NSIAD

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on: (1) the budgetary and personnel cost of the eight long-standing U.N. peacekeeping operations; (2) whether these operations are carrying out their mandates; (3) the status of efforts to resolve underlying conflicts; and (4) the reasons the executive branch continues to support these operations.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) the eight long-standing operations are deployed in environments where the underlying conflicts have defied diplomatic resolution, sometimes for decades, and have become, essentially, costly and open-ended commitments; (2) only two of these operations had successfully carried out their mandates, while the remaining six either had only partially carried out their mandates or had not carried them out; (3) although all but one of these operations were undertaken to create stable, secure environments to assist diplomatic efforts aimed at settling these underlying conflicts, diplomatic efforts to resolve these conflicts had stalled in all but one case; (4) the eight operations accounted for about $6 billion, over one third, of the $17 billion that the United Nations has spent on peacekeeping operations since 1948, and continue to account for a substantial share of current U.N. peacekeeping budgetary and personnel costs; (5) under current law, the U.S. share of the estimated annual cost of these operations for 1996 was about $148 million; (6) despite repeated calls from the U.N. Security Council for the parties to make progress toward settling the underlying conflicts, as of February 1997, only the conflict in Angola was the subject of ongoing talks between the disputing parties; (7) despite the long-standing operations' cost and mixed performance in carrying out their mandates, U.S. policymakers support continuing these operations because, in their view, they help to stabilize conflicts that could threaten U.S. foreign policy objectives; (8) in their judgment, ending these operations, or even modifying them substantially, would risk renewed conflict and damage future peacemaking efforts; (9) U.S. officials told GAO that some of these operations probably would not have been initially approved under current U.S. and U.N. peacekeeping policies; (10) at this time, however, U.S. officials see no reasonable alternative to continuing these operations indefinitely, given their assessment of the potential harm to U.S. foreign policy objectives if the underlying conflicts resumed, balanced against what they consider to be these operations' moderate cost; and (11) in continuing to support what have become essentially open-ended commitments to peacekeeping, however, the executive branch does not appear to give adequate consideration to other factors articulated by U.S. policy that seeks to* https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-97-59/html/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-97-59.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-97-59/pdf/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-97-59.pdf GAO/NSIAD-97-59 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-NSIAD-97-59 Letter Report GAO/NSIAD-97-59; U.N. Peacekeeping: Status of Long-Standing Operations and U.S. Interests in Supporting Them; International organizations International cooperation International relations Foreign governments Foreign policies Cost effectiveness analysis United Nations military forces Middle East Cyprus Angola Kashmir Western Sahara Israel Syria Iraq Kuwait Persian Gulf Egypt India Pakistan Morocco Algeria Lebanon Greece Turkey Title 22 Section 2373 22 U.S.C. 2373 Public Law 95-384 Public Law 103-236