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United Nations

The United Nations plays a significant role in the development and maintenance of international security, humanitarian laws, and social progress. RAND has examined the efficacy and effectiveness of the United Nations in such areas as nation-building, peacekeeping, and stability operations.

Commentary
Africa Succeeds in Meeting Many Long-Term U.N. Development Goals
Africa's great strides toward meeting the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals are a compelling reminder of the continent's potential to create a more prosperous and sustainable environment for its people.
Dec 7, 2015
Commentary
Flirting with Genocide in Burundi: Paying Attention Could Save Lives
Burundi has been afflicted by political violence since April. President Pierre Nkurunziza, who helped bring peace to the country in the last decade, is risking everything for the sake of staying in power. He is dragging the country backwards after 10 years of progress.
Nov 18, 2015
Journal Article
From Firearms to Weapon Systems: Challenges and Implications of Modular Design for Marking, Record-Keeping, and Tracing
This paper provides an overview of the key elements related to the development of modular designs for small arms and highlights the challenges that such designs pose to the effective implementation of the ITI and the Firearms Protocol.
May 1, 2015
Journal Article
Techno-polymers in Firearms Manufacturing: Challenges and Implications for Marking, Record-Keeping, and Tracing
This paper provides an overview of the key elements related to the use of industrial polymers in arms manufacturing, highlighting the challenges that such materials pose to the effective implementation of the ITI and the Firearms Protocol.
May 1, 2015
Commentary
Somalia on the Mediterranean
Libya is as vulnerable to further inroads by ISIS now as Syria was a year ago. What can the United States and its allies do to stop the hemorrhaging? Many options have been debated, but none look very promising.
Feb 19, 2015
Commentary
Victory, Afghan Style
A good outcome in Afghanistan seems less likely now than a few weeks ago, but there is still cause for guarded optimism: before this electoral season, few would have guessed that the final showdown would be between a pair of level-headed pro-Western moderates rather than two foul, bloodstained warlords.
Jun 23, 2014
Report
Libya After Qaddafi: Lessons and Implications for the Future
This report assesses the challenges facing Libya since the overthrow of the Qaddafi regime and evaluates the impact of the limited international role in efforts to overcome them. It also sketches possible future roles for the international community.
Mar 17, 2014
Commentary
A First Step in Geneva
The Geneva agreement is only a first step toward a comprehensive deal but it is an important achievement. Iran's ability to move toward a nuclear weapons breakout capability has been halted in return for limited sanctions relief.
Nov 25, 2013
Commentary
Libya Needs Outside Help to Avoid Perpetual War
If steps are not taken to get control of security, there is little hope for Libya's future. Qaddafi's fateful warning that Libya would become a “Somalia on the Mediterranean” without him could come true. The investment that NATO and its partners made in toppling Qaddafi would then be almost entirely wasted.
Oct 11, 2013
Commentary
Could Norway Be Key to a Future Syria Strike?
If Syrian acceptance of the Russia-backed plan that is supposed to see it give up its chemical weapons turns out to be a stalling tactic — as many believe it is — support for strikes from allies like Norway will be all the more important to the White House, writes Christopher S. Chivvis.
Sep 26, 2013
Commentary
The Hidden Conclusions in the U.N.'s Syria Gas Report
The lethality of the munitions used in Syria point directly to an actor with significant capacities and long experience using chemical weaponry and artillery, writes James T. Quinlivan. And that fingers the notoriously abusive Assad regime, not the outmatched, outgunned and frantically improvising rebels.
Sep 25, 2013
Commentary
Unlearning the Lessons of Iraq
Trepidation about boots-on-the-ground engagement has unnecessarily forestalled even small-scale efforts to repair Libya's fractured security environment....Meanwhile, in Syria, the over-learned lessons of Iraq are taking an even more serious toll, writes Christopher Chivvis.
Mar 14, 2013
Report
The Benefits of Nation-Building Interventions Have Exceeded the Costs
Most interventions in the past 25 years have been followed by improved security, some degree of democratization, and significant economic growth—with only a modest commitment of international military and civilian manpower and economic assistance.
Feb 4, 2013
Commentary
U.S. Role in Kirkuk Could Promote Peace, Prevent Conflict in Northern Iraq
No matter which presidential candidate occupies the White House in January, he should make a concerted effort to address Iraq's most combustible hotspot: the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, writes Larry Hanauer.
Nov 5, 2012
Report
Resolving Kirkuk: Lessons Learned from Settlements of Earlier Ethno-Territorial Conflicts
Past efforts to resolve ethno-territorial conflicts in Brčko, Mostar, Northern Ireland, and Jerusalem provide insights that could facilitate a negotiated settlement of the status of the disputed Iraqi city of Kirkuk.
May 9, 2012
Report
The Challenges of International Intervention in the Wake of Conflict
Governments intervening in post-conflict states face challenges and dilemmas regarding stabilization and reconstruction, where measures that may improve conditions in one respect may undermine them in another. A review of relevant literature seeks to inform strategic planning at the whole-of-government level.
Oct 10, 2011
Report
Managing Arab-Kurd Tensions in Northern Iraq After the Withdrawal of U.S. Troops
Continuing tensions between Arab and Kurdish communities in Iraq could lead to inadvertent armed conflict unless Iraqi leaders resolve outstanding disputes regarding federalism, the legal and political status of disputed territories, and the management of northern Iraq's oil and gas resources.
Jul 25, 2011
Commentary
Odd Man Out at Sea
The United States has yet to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. As a result, the U.S., the world's leading maritime power, is at a military and economic disadvantage, write Thad W. Allen, Richard L. Armitage, and John J. Hamre.
Apr 25, 2011
Commentary
Industry Insights: What's So Hard About Stopping Piracy?
Containing persistent maritime disorder might be more fruitful and could lay the foundations for a successful transition to better use of the sea once the societal factors—an even longer term problem—have been resolved, writes Laurence Smallman.
Apr 11, 2011
Commentary
The Allies in Libya: A New Paradigm for Intervention?
What has been happening in North Africa this year, in what seems to be the leading edge of a great wind of change sweeping the Arab world, will require the Europeans (along with the U.S. and others) to be deeply and durably engaged there — economically, politically and in humanitarian terms, writes Robert E. Hunter.
Apr 10, 2011

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RAND Topic:
United Nations

Topic Synonyms:
U.N.;
UN

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