The United Nations (“UN”) was founded in 1945 after World War II to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war. Sadly, these lofty ideals have not materialised and the world today seems to be in a permanent state of war punctuated by periods of peace. John F. Kennedy, together with the drafters of the UN charter, saw one of the primary roles of the UN as form of world police. As Kennedy’s quote above shows, his rhetoric even went so far as establishing an international police force, presumably with jurisdictional freedom to enter sovereign states at will. Clearly we are a long way from a UN military force, let alone an international police force. I will argue that peace operations have been and will continue to be a marginal option which States will chose, or not, to support as their own domestic agenda dictates.