Knowledge management in complex environments: the UN peacekeeping

Purpose – This paper aims to illustrate the peculiar knowledge management (KM) issues in UN peacekeeping, the practices adopted, their practicability and problematic aspects. Design/methodology/approach – This case study deals with a “frontier” experience that summarizes many elements of complexity of public decision making, such as: uncertainty, multiplicity of goals and tasks, participation of different and often conflicting stakeholders, different levels of authority, etc. Findings – The case study shows that transposing today's lessons into the future – which is a major goal of KM – is intrinsically difficult in the case of global and multidimensional decision making. KM systems must evolve and adapt continuously. Closing the nexus between KM and policy making could make policies more responsive to the evolvement of internal and external conditions, but turning knowledge into policy means that knowledge should not be disconnected from its sources, in terms of people and places. Practical implications – The analysis of the UN experience provides food for thought for all the professionals and organizations alike involved in KM processes of comparable complexity. Originality/value – From a conceptual viewpoint, the study addresses the important issue of KM applied to complex policy‐making processes. The study of the KM solutions adopted to face this complexity provides insights for both scholars and practitioners.