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The incorporation of the protection of cultural heritage in the mandate of the United Nations mission in Mali (MINUSMA) was achieved through Security Council Resolution 2100. It has received extensive media coverage orchestrated by UNESCO. For this specialized UN agency, Resolution 2100 is a landmark in the history of peacekeeping in that, for the first time, the UN Security Council recognized the destruction of cultural sites as a threat to “international peace and security.” Based on a qualitative methodology combining participant observation with a series of interviews conducted in the UN secretariat, this contribution intends to analyze the way the question of cultural heritage, which appears as a minimal issue in the negotiations of the 2100 Resolution, has acted as an indicator of structural tensions within multilateralism. At the UN Security Council, it has highlighted the opposition between French and Russian conceptions of peacekeeping. Within the UN system, it has demonstrated the willingness of UNESCO staff to reposition their agency as a direct interlocutor of the Security Council and thus as a full-fledged player in international emergency situations.