UN Department of Peace Operations

The Department of Peace Operations (DPO) is the UN Secretariat entity responsible for the day-to-day direction of UN peacekeeping operations and certain special political missions in conflict-affected regions. It was created on 1 January 2019 as part of Secretary-General António Guterres's management reform, which split the former Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO, established 1992) into DPO and the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA), while creating a shared regional structure to align political and operational responses.

DPO is headed by an Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, who reports to the Secretary-General and, through him, to the Security Council, which authorises and mandates each mission under Chapters VI, VII, or VIII of the UN Charter. The department's core functions include:

• Translating Security Council mandates into operational plans
• Providing political guidance to Special Representatives of the Secretary-General (SRSGs) in the field
• Force generation, in coordination with troop- and police-contributing countries
• Overseeing rule-of-law, military, and police components
• Coordinating with the Department of Operational Support (DOS) on logistics, budget, and personnel

DPO works alongside the Office of Military Affairs, the Police Division, and the Office of Rule of Law and Security Institutions. As of the mid-2020s it oversees missions such as MONUSCO (DR Congo), UNMISS (South Sudan), UNIFIL (Lebanon), UNFICYP (Cyprus), and MINURSO (Western Sahara), among others. MINUSMA in Mali was closed in December 2023 following the host government's withdrawal of consent.

The department does not set mandates itself — that authority rests with the Security Council — nor does it directly command national contingents, which remain under operational, but not full, UN control. Guiding doctrine includes the Capstone Doctrine (2008), the HIPPO Report (2015), and the Secretary-General's Action for Peacekeeping (A4P) initiative launched in 2018 and renewed as A4P+ in 2021.