The Toledo International Centre for Peace (CITpax) and the International Peace Institute (IPI) convened  a two day meeting focused on the multiple perspectives of UNIFIL’s political and managerial challenges, taking into account the complex context the peace operation is deployed in. The emphasis was on lessons-learned for the United Nations, the multinational force, their multiple partners with a special focus on the Spanish deployment. The event brought together policy-makers and researchers from UNIFIL, the UN headquarters, troop contributing countries, Israel, and Lebanon to discuss UNIFIL’s role in addressing the peace and security challenges in Lebanon and the region.

The main objectives of the seminar were to:

• Gain an enhanced and multi-layered perspective of the UN mission and its multinational military force;
• Identify gaps, inconsistencies, or contradictions in areas of relevance to UNIFIL mission effectiveness;
• Focus particularly on areas where there is opportunity to strengthen  multilateral cooperation, both within the UN system and with other international actors;
• To analyse the mission’s effectiveness in regard to its political, strategic and tactical environment, the multinational force’s internal command, management and intercultural interoperability, its relationships with the various actors, and the fulfilment of its mandate;
• The identification of policy and research ideas to strengthen the management and organizational capacity of UN peace operations. 

International Peace Institute