United Nations Peacekeeping, Disarmament and Conflict Resolution

Abstract

Peacekeeping, as we recognize it today, was unforeseen when the United Nations (UN) was created in 1945. For this reason neither the term nor the concept appears anywhere in the organization’s Charter. Instead, through their powers as permanent members on the UN Security Council (UNSC), the post-war victors were expected to police the world with the consensus inherent in Chapter VII (enforcement) resolutions and the might of their combined militaries. Unfortunately, post-war collaboration was soon replaced with Cold War standoff and the UN itself became simply another means to manage the relationships of the great powers rather than a means to organize their combined efforts. It was in this highly charged political atmosphere that UN peacekeeping was first developed and its primary objective was to prevent the USA and USSR from becoming embroiled in localized disputes that might otherwise have escalated into global conflict. Initially seen for this reason as a method of preventive diplomacy, peacekeeping developed its own set of principles and operational norms that enabled UN ‘blue helmet’ forces to be perceived as both non-coercive and neutral. By the end of the Cold War the UN itself was defining its peacekeeping operations as those that involved: …military personnel, but without enforcement powers, undertaken by the United Nations to help maintain or restore international peace and security in areas of conflict. These operations are voluntary and are based on consent and co-operation. While they involve the use of military personnel, they achieve their objectives not by force of arms, thus contrasting them with the ‘enforcement action’ of the United Nations under Article 42.4