Partnering to Protect: Conceptualizing Civil–Military artnerships for the Protection of Civilians

Protection of civilians has been on the international agenda for more than ten years. In that time, many UN peace operations have received protection mandates but few have been successfully carried out. Protection requires all elements of a peace mission to have a common understanding of the relevant concepts, processes and desired outcomes. This requires partnerships between the various elements of the mission. Partnership between disparate groups is difficult at the best of times, and is exacerbated by the operational contexts of peace missions. Successful partnerships require extensive pre-mission preparation, in-mission coordination and post-mission evaluation. Participants have only just begun to address these issues at a basic level.