This area of research looks at the evolution of United Nations peace operations. In particular, it looks at the implications of recent trends towards a greater focus on civilian protection, more involvement in post-conflict peacebuilding and an increased willingness to use force as part of mandate implementation.
As part of this work, Dr Hunt is the recipient of an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Fellowship for 2017-2020. The project – ‘International Policing and Civilian Protection’ – aims to assess the evolving roles and emerging impacts of police peacekeepers, specifically as they relate to implementing protection of civilians mandates. More detail about this project here.
He is also is a Chief Investigator (along with Professor Alex Bellamy, UQ) on an Australian Research Council Discovery Project grant for 2016–2019 that aims to evaluate the impacts of more ‘robust’ civilian protection and stabilisation-focused missions. This project – ‘Civilian Protection and the Use of Force’ – investigates the impacts for UN peacekeeping overall as well as for myriad other actors operating in the same space such as the development and humanitarian communities. More detail about this project is available here.
Recent publications in this area include:
- Curran, D. and Hunt, C. T. (2020) “Stabilization at the expense of Peacebuilding in UN peacekeeping operations: More than just a phase?” Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations, 26(1): 1-23.
- Charles T. Hunt (2019) “Rhetoric versus reality in rise of policing in UN peace operations: ‘More blue, less green’?“, Australian Journal of International Affairs, 73(6): 609 – 627.
- Charles T. Hunt (2017) “All necessary means to what ends? The unintended consequences of the ‘robust turn’ in UN peace operations“, International Peacekeeping, 24(1): 108-131.
- Alex J. Bellamy and Charles T. Hunt (2015) “Twenty-first Century UN peace operations: protection, force and the changing security environment”, International Affairs, 91(6): 1277–1298.
Associate Professor Charles T. Hunt 