On 3 October Clingendael joined the ‘friends of HIPPO’ - the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations. This Panel  recently delivered a set of recommendations (pdf) to make sure that the approaches and capabilities of peace keeping operations remain in sync with the realities of contemporary conflict, and build on its successes to date.

The friends of HIPPO are part of the ‘Future of Peace Operations Initiative´ that supports the United Nations in its follow-up on the Panel’s recommendations. The initiative facilitates global outreach and provides in-depth analysis of current challenges that UN Peace Operations face. It is run by Brian Urquhart Center for Peace Operations of the International Peace Institute (IPI) in New York.

Clingendael provided its first contribution to the work of the panel in February 2015 by means of its CRU policy brief ‘Fighting for Peace: The tricky business of using greater force in UN peace operations’, and by hosting a workshop for panel members on the use of force by peacekeepers in Amsterdam.