India, May 23 -- The peacekeeping system the world built to prevent its worst instincts from running unchecked is dying - not in a single dramatic moment, but through the slow bleed of empty budgets, absent troops and political indifference

The international system built to keep the world's most fragile regions from descending into chaos is quietly falling apart. Not through dramatic collapse, but through slow, steady exhaustion - shrinking budgets, fewer troops, weakened mandates and fading political will. A forthcoming report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) lays bare the scale of this retreat: personnel deployed to peace operations worldwide have fallen to just 78,633, the lowest figure in at least 25 ...