Peacekeeping ops face unprecedented complexities in today’s conflicts: CISC

New Delhi: Modern warfare is increasingly multi-faceted and borderless and conflicts today involve a mix of state forces, non-state militias and terrorist groups, leading to “unprecedented complexities” for peacekeeping operations, a top Indian military official said on Thursday.

In a keynote address delivered at an event here, Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (CISC) Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit also said there was a need to examine how peacekeeping and the international humanitarian law must adapt to modern realities.

“We stand at a defining inflection point in global geopolitics. The structure of international peace and security is undergoing profound change. The post-World War II order, which was grounded in collective responsibility, shared norms, and humanitarian values, now, is under tremendous stress,” he said. The CISC underlined that about a “quarter of a world” lives in conflict-affected areas, and today there are “61 active conflicts worldwide”, the highest number since 1946.

The ‘USI UN Annual Forum’ is being hosted by Delhi-based defence think-tank USI in collaboration with Centre for UN Peacekeeping (CUNPK) and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on the theme ‘Advancing Peacekeeping and the Humanitarian Imperative in a Contested World’ on October 23 and 24. “We should examine how peacekeeping and the international humanitarian law must adapt to modern realities, and how we are to uphold the humanitarian imperative amid this fragmentation,” Air Marshal Dixit said.

He mentioned the theme of the forum was both relevant and timely, as it coincides with the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations that came into effect on October 24, 1945, soon after World War II.