Peacekeeping Operations

Historical Developments

Peacekeeping originated in the League of Nations commissions that were established after World War I. It has since largely fallen under the auspices of the United Nations, although never explicitly articulated in that organization's [Page 618]charter. Peacekeeping was originally conceptualized as an alternative to collective security (which was embodied in Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter and sought to maintain security through the collective action of nationstates) lest any attempt to engage in collective action escalate into all-out conflict between superpowers. Typically, Cold War–era peacekeepers were assigned tasks like monitoring buffer zones and ceasefires. Missions revolved around three principles: the necessity of obtaining the consent of the parties involved in a conflict; the impartiality of the peacekeepers; and, the nonuse of force. These operations—such as the United Nations Emergency Force deployed to the Suez Canal and Sinai Peninsula from 1956 to 1967—were undertaken mainly by ”middle nations,” powers accepted as sufficiently removed from the ideological poles of the Cold War and any local conflicts of interest to therefore be considered impartial.

These principles changed when the Cold War ended in the early 1990s. The most immediately noticeable characteristic of peacekeeping at that time was the number of new operations undertaken, with 26 new U.N. peacekeeping missions established between 1988 and 1995 alone—twice the number initiated during the previous 40 years. Reduced tensions between the United States and Russia permitted far fewer vetoes by the major powers at the U.N. Security Council and led to more peacekeeping operations. But the end of the Cold War also contributed to a need for more operations, for example, in Somalia, where the withdrawal of superpower interest was followed by the country's eventual degeneration into anarchy. Concurrently, what has been called the ”CNN effect” led to an increased public demand for military intervention to alleviate humanitarian disasters worldwide. The nature of peacekeeping operations evolved rapidly. ”Traditional” Cold War–era peacekeeping gave way to more aggressive operations that deployed larger, more robustly armed forces whose increased responsibilities included rebuilding failed states, delivering aid, peacerestoration, and establishing and maintaining ”safe havens.” Significantly, these operations sometimes took place without the consent of those originally involved in the conflict.

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