The institute's report indicates that by the end of 2025, there would be less than 79,000 international personnel deployed in global peacekeeping operations - the lowest level in the past 25 years.
If the situation continues as it is now, we may witness a serious weakening of the multilateral conflict management mechanism and the fact that organizations such as the United Nations are almost marginalized, due to the combination of the financial crisis and political and geopolitical factors" - Mr. Jair van der Lijn - Director of the SIPRI's peace operations and conflict management program - said.
He warned that this could lead to more conflicts and risk causing more serious impacts on civilians.
A total of 58 peacekeeping operations were launched in 2025, for the first time falling below the 60 mark since 2016.
Nearly 3/4 of the forces are operating in 5 countries including: Central African Republic, South Sudan, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Lebanon.
According to SIPRI, the operations led by the United Nations are weakening due to the financial crisis, in the context that the largest contributing countries have not fully implemented or only partially implemented their funding commitments.
Therefore, 2 billion USD is short of the total 5.6 billion USD committed for the 2024-2025 budget.
“In the United Nations Security Council, tough demands and veto threats from permanent members have made the extension of the operation more complicated,” SIPRI noted.
For example, the US demands an end to the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) despite violations of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon still occurring.
Finally, as a compromise solution, the Security Council voted to extend this mission for the last time, lasting until December 2026.
However, SIPRI believes that support for the principle of multilateral conflict management is still quite solid. "To maintain the mechanism of multilateral conflict management, countries need to do more than just express support. Countries need to provide stable financial resources, creating enough political space for multilateral responses to be effective," said SIPRI researcher Claudia Pfeifer Cruz.
