Peacekeeping

Emma R. Norman, Policy Studies Organization

Abstract

Reader’s Guide

This chapter introduces peacekeeping as one of the most urgent and crucial phases of conflict resolution and as a concept and a practice on which consensus is difficult to find. The disagreements start with how to define it, they permeate the soundness of its main principles and continue right up to what types of missions should be included, how many functions can be integrated into a mission and how to evaluate their success or failure. Acknowledging the disagreement and resulting confusion in all these areas, this chapter aims to develop a working command of some of the increasingly complex facets of peacekeeping and how it has evolved since 1948. It examines how failures in dealing with changing circumstances have led to severe criticisms of peacekeeping. It nevertheless concludes that the earnest reflection some criticisms have brought about has prompted positive developments in contemporary peacekeeping that attempt to account for new contexts and needs more adequately.