The Silver Lining of ‘Haiti Fatigue’ |
Those suffering in humanitarian crises around the world, from Sudan to Haiti, are also victims of an international system that has broken down. The United States is retreating from international cooperation; geopolitical competition has put the great powers at loggerheads in multilateral bodies; and the mechanisms, procedures, and lessons developed by peacekeeping missions since 1948 are being bypassed or otherwise ignored.
There are plenty of instances in recent history of multilateralism helping to rally international attention and action, even if temporarily, to alleviate human suffering. Think of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Colombia, Guatemala, and El Salvador post-civil war.
Those suffering in humanitarian crises around the world, from Sudan to Haiti, are also victims of an international system that has broken down. The United States is retreating from international cooperation; geopolitical competition has put the great powers at loggerheads in multilateral bodies; and the mechanisms, procedures, and lessons developed by peacekeeping missions since 1948 are being bypassed or otherwise ignored.
There are plenty of instances in recent history of multilateralism helping to rally international attention and action, even if temporarily, to alleviate human suffering. Think of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Colombia, Guatemala, and El Salvador post-civil war.
But organizations such as the United Nations, the Organization of American States (OAS), and the African Union have not always succeeded in their broader missions of rebuilding states, resolving centuries’ old conflicts, or addressing the corrosive effects of illicit activity and corruption.
Haiti is one of those cases of past failures, but it may now offer a model path out of international paralysis over humanitarian crises and conflicts. While the contours and funding of September’s U.N. Security Council resolution on Haiti are still to be defined, the approval of the resolution was itself a significant milestone—China and Russia, quietly aligning themselves with the demands of the Global South, held their vetoes to allow the U.S.-sponsored resolution to move forward. With the support of Panama, the Trump administration’s initiative demonstrated leadership in embracing new multilateral solutions to humanitarian crises.
The era when peacekeeping countries could depend on U.S leadership and funding to combat soft development needs at the root of conflict and state breakdown has ended, possibly permanently. Haiti will be the first test of a more ad hoc, dispersed form of leadership and diplomacy.
The July 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse plunged Haiti into a governance and security crisis. Since then, the country........