History of United Nations peacekeeping
[3] Before any official peacekeeping mission, the UN played an important role in the conflict concerning Trieste after World War II.
[5] The group, the UN Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), as it was named, continues to monitor the situation and has provided observers for a number of conflicts in the region since then.
Throughout the Cold War, the tensions on the UN Security Council made it difficult to implement peacekeeping measures in countries and regions seen to relate to the spread or containment of leftist and revolutionary movements.
While some conflicts were separate enough from the Cold War to achieve consensus support for peacekeeping missions, most were too deeply enmeshed in the global struggle.
A second observer force, UNIPOM, was also dispatched, in 1965 to the areas of the India-Pakistan border that were not being monitored by the earlier mission, UNMOGIP, after a ceasefire in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.
[9] In West New Guinea from 1962 to 1963, UNSF maintained law and order while the territory was transferred from Dutch colonial control to Indonesia.
[10] The Middle East, where combatants were generally not firmly aligned with the superpowers, who mainly sought stability in the crucial oil-producing region, was the most visible location of UN peacekeeping during the Cold War.
In 1958, UNOGIL was authorized to ensure that there was no illegal infiltration of personnel or supply of arms across the Lebanese borders, mainly from the United Arab Republic.
In the 1980s only one new mission was authorized in the region, UNIIMOG, to supervise the withdrawal of troops to the internationally recognized border between Iraq and Iran after almost eight years of war between those two countries.
It also withdrew its support from satellite states and one UN peacekeeping mission, UNGOMAP, was designed to oversee the Pakistan–Afghanistan border and the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan as the USSR began to refocus domestically.
The end of political gridlock in the Security Council helped the number of peacekeeping missions increase substantially.
In Angola (UNAVEM I, II and III) aimed to end fighting between rebel, anti-Communist UNITA and the ruling, Communist MPLA.
In El Salvador, a further internal UN peacekeeping force, (ONUSAL), was authorized to verify the ceasefire between the socialist FMLN and the government.
Following the cessation of hostilities, the UN authorized United Nations Iraq–Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM) to monitor the DMZ between the two countries.
Eight UN peacekeeping missions have been sent to the former Yugoslavia, UNPROFOR, UNCRO, UNPREDEP, UNMIBH, UNTAES, UNMOP, UNPSG, and UNMIK as well as two to Rwanda, UNAMIR and UNOMUR.
Despite the cessation of international, Cold-War inspired aid, civil wars continued in many regions and the UN attempted to bring peace.
However, two rebel groups instigated the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003, and UNMIL was dispatched to oversee the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and continues to assist in national security reform.
In 1996 and 1997 three missions, UNSMIH, UNTMIH, and MIPONUH, were organized with the goal of reforming, training, and assisting the police through a period of political turmoil.
In Central African Republic, MINURCA (1998) was created to oversee the disarmament of several mutinous groups of former CAR military personnel and militias as well as to assist with the training of a new national police and the running of elections.
In Côte d'Ivoire, UNOCI was dispatched to enforce a 2004 peace agreement ending the Ivorian Civil War, though the country remains divided.
Following ceasefire agreements ending the Burundi Civil War, ONUB was authorized in 2004 to oversee the implementation of the Arusha Peace Accords.
In some cases, the Security Council has failed to pass resolutions or the member states have been reluctant to fully enforce them in the face of deteriorating conditions.
[19][20] One suggestion to address the problem of delays such as the one in Rwanda, is a rapid reaction force: a standing group, administered by the UN and deployed by the Security Council that receives its troops and support from current Security Council members and is ready for quick deployment in the event of future genocides.
The 2008 capstone doctrine entitled "United Nations Peacekeeping Operations: Principles and Guidelines"[29] incorporates and builds on the Brahimi analysis.
