UN Security Council and peace operations

Abstract

Peace operations involve the international deployment of soldiers, police, and other civilians to help support peace processes and agreements. This chapter provides an historical overview and analysis of how the UN Security Council has deployed over seventy peace operations and authorized dozens of others to help maintain international peace and security since 1948. To do so, it first charts how different types of peace operations have developed both within and outside the UN system, noting the particularly important expansion of such missions after the Cold War. The chapter then discusses four key contemporary debates concerning the geopolitical purposes of UN peace operations; the relationship between the UN and regional arrangements; participation in peace operations and who provides UN peacekeepers; as well as the use of military force.