David Bosco took a look at the issues related to the compensation of UN Peacekeepers:

• Peacekeeping has increasingly become an activity that is undertaken by the poor and paid for by the rich. It has been described as the UN’s caste system.
• For every soldier that serves as a UN Peacekeeper, the United Nations pays the member state which the troop belongs to $1,028 a month.
• This amount hasn’t changed much in almost 20 years – and because donor countries are often delinquent in their payments, the money is usually paid late.
• Yet the kinds of missions that Peacekeepers are getting involved in are more dangerous and complicated than ever before.
• Donor countries in a time of austerity are unwilling to increase the amount they pay for Peacekeepers since despite the low price, it can still be a money making opportunity for poorer countries who rely on the revenues from UN Peacekeeping operations to sustain their armies.
• Bangladesh, for example, made $1.28 billion between 2001 and 2010 and used this money to maintain advanced military equipment.

Read more about the compromise that the UN is arriving at, the challenges that remain, the individuals who have died trying to keep the peace, and the quest for Security Council reform over here.

Source: Foreign Policy