As UN peacekeeping veers toward counterterror, US steps in

Suicide bombings, improvised explosive devices and combatants with little regard for the rules of war are making the work of nearly 125,000 U.N. peacekeepers look more and more like counterterrorism operations.

[...] new allegations of sexual abuses by U.N. peacekeepers expose deep gaps in training and accountability.

President Barack Obama takes on these issues next Monday when he chairs a U.N. meeting aimed at persuading European and other countries to send money, people and high-tech tools to peacekeeping missions in some of the world's volatile places, from South Sudan to the Golan Heights on the Syria-Israel border.

The new peacekeeping vision calls for special forces, unarmed drones and intelligence work that brings the U.N. closer than ever to the sensitive issue of electronic surveillance.

[...] several European countries staff an intelligence cell there, unprecedented in U.N. peacekeeping, that analyzes input from unarmed drones, sensor-equipped attack helicopters and special forces.

The goal is "small units of high quality," said Jim Della-Giacoma, deputy director of the Center on International Cooperation at New York University and a former U.N. political affairs officer.

A U.S. official on Tuesday said European countries are expected to announce the contribution of "one or two discrete military units" such as an engineering company or a field hospital, and the overall pledges of new troops should "significantly exceed" a goal of 10,000.

In recent weeks, the mission in Central African Republic has faced multiple allegations of sexual abuse, including against minors, that prompted Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to take the unprecedented step of asking the head of mission to resign.

[...] his intention to publicly name states whose soldiers face credible accusations of sexual abuse puts the world body in a bind: