The Brahimi Report and the Future of UN Peace Operations

The Brahimi Report and the Future of Peace Operations assesses implementation to date of the "Brahimi Report," a landmark document published in 2000 that recommended sweeping changes in UN peacekeeping and associated post-conflict peacebuilding efforts. This book also examines the implications of this landmark report on the UN's ability to anticipate and successfully implement complex operations. The authors assess situations where implementation has achieved, fallen short of, or exceeded the objectives laid out by the Report and propose additional recommendations to enhance UN operational capacity in a rapidly evolving global political and conflict environment.

William J. Durch is a senior associate at the Henry L. Stimson Center. He recently served as project director for the Panel on UN Peace Operations, a comprehensive study of the United Nations' engagement in peace and security related field missions, at the request of the Office of the Secretary General of the UN. He is former assistant director of the Defense and Arms Control Studies Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and holds a doctorate in political science from MIT. He is a graduate of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and has taught at Georgetown and at the Johns Hopkins Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.

Durch has held research appointments at MIT, Harvard, and the Center for Naval Analyses, and served in government at the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. He has lectured on peace operations at Columbia, Stanford, and Yale University; at MIT; at the US Air, Army, and Naval War Colleges; at the National Defense University; and at the NATO School in Oberammergau.

He is author of Constructing Regional Security: The Role of Arms Transfers, Arms Control, and Reassurance (Palgrave, 2000); editor and coauthor of UN Peacekeeping, American Policy, and the Uncivil Wars of the 1990s (St. Martin's, 1996) and The Evolution of UN Peacekeeping: Case Studies and Comparative Analyses (St. Martin's, 1993). He is also coauthor of studies on arms control in Europe and US military roles and missions for the twenty-first century, and author of several studies of strategic and theater ballistic missile defense.

Victoria K. Holt is a senior associate at the Henry L. Stimson Center, where she co-directs the Future of Peace Operations project. She recently co-authored a study of peacekeeping reforms at the United Nations, analyzing implementation of the recommendations of the 2000 Brahimi Report and offering options for further improving peace operations. As part of her work at Stimson, she also looks at regional capacities in Africa for peace operations, US policies, and efforts to improve peacekeeping and rule of law tools.

Holt joined the Stimson Center in 2001, bringing policy and political expertise on UN and peacekeeping issues from her work at the State Department, in the NGO field and on Capitol Hill over the previous 15 years. She served as Senior Policy Advisor at the State Department (Legislative Affairs), where she was responsible for interaction with Congress on issues involving the UN, peacekeeping and international organizations. Prior to joining State in 1999, she was Executive Director of the Emergency Coalition for US Financial Support of the United Nations, a bipartisan coalition of leading statesmen and civic organizations supporting US payment of UN arrears. Holt also directed the Project on Peacekeeping and the UN at the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation in Washington, DC.

From 1987 to 1994, Holt worked as a senior Congressional staffer, focusing on defense and foreign policy issues for members of the House Armed Services Committee. She served as Legislative Director for Rep. Thomas H. Andrews and as Senior Legislative Assistant to Rep. George J. Hochbrueckner. Before working on Capitol Hill, she focused on defense and arms control issues for numerous public interest organizations. Holt is a graduate of the Naval War College and holds a BA with honors from Wesleyan University. Holt is on the Executive Board of Women in International Security (WIIS).