On January
28, 2011, the Permanent Mission of the United States to the United Nations hosted
a roundtable discussion of the Stimson Center report, UN Panels of Experts and UN Peace Operations,
authored by Alix Julia Boucher. The roundtable included the following speakers:
Ms. Boucher, former Research Analyst for the Future of Peace Operations program, and
current Research Fellow, Center for Complex Operations at the National Defense
University
Christian Dietrich, former Member, United Nations Panels of
Experts on Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Sudan
Loraine Rickard-Martin, former Senior Political Affairs
Officer, Security Council Affairs Division, Department of Political Affairs,
United Nations, and current Partner, Compliance and Capacity International, LLC,
and
Because various Security Council resolutions mandate
sanctions on conflict-affected countries that also host UN peace operations, those
operations and UN Panels of Experts tasked to investigate sanctions
implementation clearly have mutually reinforcing objectives. This report works
from the assumption that increased cooperation between Panels and peace
operations would advance the cause of peace and security in the places where
these entities both work. Drawing on research and interviews conducted in
Washington, New York, Côte d’Ivoire, DRC, and Liberia, the report examines
cooperation between Panels and peace operations in the latter three countries,
the potential synergies that cooperation already brings to international
peacebuilding efforts in those settings, and the challenges that sanctions
present for donors.