Developments and Trends in Multilateral Peace Operations, 2024

A total of 61 peace operations were active in 36 countries or territories during 2024, two fewer than during 2023. The number of international personnel deployed at the end of the year was 42 per cent fewer than in 2015, despite the number of missions remaining roughly stable over the decade.

Geopolitical tensions continued to impact multilateral peace operations in 2024. Negotiations in the United Nations Security Council were often difficult and ambitions low. Funding challenges to peace operations intensified in 2024. A liquidity crisis in the UN peacekeeping budget disrupted the functioning of UN-led missions. Regionally led peace operations also faced financial difficulties, in some cases contributing to their  closure or putting their future viability in doubt.

Following a period of deteriorating relations between host governments and peace operations—which contributed to closures and requests for operations to withdraw—the governments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Somalia reconsidered their stance in 2024. Faced with persistent security threats, both governments requested missions to slow their ongoing drawdowns.

In the coming years, multilateral peace operations are likely to continue to face difficulties due to geopolitical divisions and funding cuts. Many host governments are expected to maintain their preference for militarized approaches to conflict management, while deprioritizing wider concerns such as human rights and rule of law. These factors are also likely to lead to a rise in conflict-management responses outside multilateral institutions.

This SIPRI Fact Sheet presents the latest SIPRI data on multilateral peace operations, along with analysis of developments and trends in 2024. The data, which replaces all multilateral peace operations data previously published by SIPRI, comes from the SIPRI Multilateral Peace Operations Database.

To access SIPRI Map of Multilateral Peace Operations 2025, click here. For an interactive map of contributors of military personnel to multilateral peace operations, click here.