United Nations Peacekeeping — An Introduction

Abstract

Peacekeeping, whether by the United Nations or another organization or state, has never been adequately defined. The practice of United Nations peacekeeping has fluctuated, adapting itself to the tasks and the situations it has faced. Some might even argue that this ability to adapt is one of the important strengths of United Nations peacekeeping. Peacekeeping was not invented by the United Nations, and the United Nations has never had a monopoly on peacekeeping. Before the creation of the United Nations, the League of Nations had experimented with operations which had some of the characteristics of modern-day peacekeeping. In the lifetime of the United Nations, other international organisations, multilateral coalitions, and individual states have practised what they have termed peacekeeping, and indeed, some non-United Nations operations have been successful in pursuing their objectives. Nevertheless, it is United Nations peacekeeping operations around the world which have created some of the characteristics that today are seen as the basics of peacekeeping. Through the United Nations, peacekeeping has proven itself to be a useful instrument for the settlement of conflicts that have affected international society. At the end of the day, it is international society which decides how this instrument is applied, though there is a tendency to forget this, and this leads to wishful thinking — peacekeeping by the United Nations can only be practised in the ways that the member states of the United Nations are willing to let it be practised.