This edited volume offers a timely, interdisciplinary, and policy-oriented examination of the evolving role of the United Nations (UN) in navigating contemporary global crises as the twenty-first century becomes increasingly defined by protracted wars, geopolitical rivalries, humanitarian crises, failed negotiations, and shifting global power structures.

Bringing together scholars, practitioners, policy analysts, UN experts, and think-tank researchers, this book examines the UN’s capacity and future role in international peace and security, focusing on conflict management, peacekeeping, diplomacy, global governance, post-conflict reconstruction, multilateral diplomacy and the UN’s role in a fragmented international order.

Structured around five thematic parts, the book examines global order, peace and security, preventive diplomacy, peacekeeping, WPS, and institutional reform through theoretically grounded and empirically rich case studies across Africa, South Asia, the Indo-Pacific, and the Middle East.

Dr. Avanish Kumar is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations at CeRSSE, JAIN (Deemed-to-be University), Bengaluru, and a scholar of peace and conflict studies with a specialisation in UN peacekeeping and global peace governance. His research engages with key issues at the intersection of peacebuilding, conflict resolution, international security and global governance. He has previously taught at Pondicherry University and the University of Delhi.

Colonel (Dr.) Kulwant Kumar Sharma served for over 30 years in the Army and was a UN military observer with UNTAC, Cambodia. He was a founding member of the Centre for United Nations Peacekeeping in New Delhi and remains an on-call instructor. He contributed to the UN Capstone Doctrine on peacekeeping and OHCHR training manuals in Geneva. He also participated in the EPON study on protection mandates with NUPI, Norway, presented to UN officials in New York in May 2022.

Dr. Naveenkumar A. S. is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations at CeRSSE, JAIN (Deemed-to-be University), Bengaluru. He has served as a Research Associate in an ICSSR-funded project at Vel Tech University, Tamil Nadu. His research interests span international relations, UN peacekeeping, comparative politics, sustainable development and political theory.