Prevention of Violent Conflict: Tasks and Challenges for the United Nations‪.‬

In endorsing the recommendations of the High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan committed to strengthening the organization's function to prevent armed conflict. A review of the UN's track record in the three types of conflict prevention--operational, structural, and systemic--shows its success has been limited to cases of interstate conflict between smaller powers. Serious political and institutional obstacles will continue to thwart the UN in preventing wars between powerful states or managing internal conflicts. However, the renewed prevention agenda offers an opportunity to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his team to refocus the UN's efforts to take advantage of the organization's potential as a catalyst and strategic center of political action while keeping a realistic view of its capabilities to implement conflict prevention in different contexts. KEYWORDS: conflict prevention, United Nations, preventive diplomacy, armed conflict, peacebuilding. **********