Civil-military relations are of outmost importance to mission coherence and effectiveness of contemporary multidimensional ‘integrated’ UN peace operations. In this literature review, we explore the matter of civil-military relations during missions with a focus on leadership strategies, practices and challenges of civilian protection. By strategic mission leadership we mean senior civilian and military leaders ‘in the field’ who are responsible, in different ways, for mission implementation. The review confers key theoretical and empirical insights on how and why senior civilian and military mission leaders (fail to) interact and coordinate to protect civilians in a coherent way ‘in the field’, thereby outlining how matters of leadership, civil-military relations and civilian protection are interconnected in contemporary UN peace operations. In doing so, a review of the current state of research helps to inform policymakers and practitioners on how to improve selection and preparation of strategic mission leaders in future integrated UN missions.
The research was generously funded by the Folke Bernadotte Academy (DNR 22-00527).
Disclaimer: The opinions, findings, and conclusion or recommendations expressed in the review are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the view of the Folke Bernadotte Academy.