The UK is a permanent member of the UN Security Council. That means we take our responsibility to support the UN’s efforts to maintain international peace and security very seriously.

We help resolve conflict through an integrated civil-military approach to peacekeeping, stabilisation and sustained post-conflict peace building. The Stabilisation Unit plays a key role in this process.

UK and UN peacekeeping

The UK contributes almost 8% of the total cost of United Nations peacekeeping.

The UK’s peacekeeping budget, managed by the FCO, is £374m in 2007/08. This covers:

• our share of UN peacekeeping costs
• contributions to the EU and Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) peacekeeping missions
• support to African Union missions
• cost of UK military, police and civilian personnel participating in peacekeeping missions.

We target our resources where they will make the biggest difference to the effectiveness of UN peacekeeping.

We have recently been working in:

• Afghanistan
• Sudan
• Democratic Republic of Congo
• Kosovo
• Sierra Leone

In the UN Security Council we have fought for clear, robust and realistic mandates for peacekeeping missions. And we work towards stricter financial management of peacekeeping operations.

The UK is also a strong supporter of the UN’s Standby Forces Arrangements. We are working closely with the UN Secretariat to enhance the UN’s rapid deployment capability.