CHALLENGES TO UNITED NATIONS PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS IN THE POST-COLD WAR ERA

Since its inception in 1945, the United Nations UN has undertaken responsibility for maintaining world peace and security. Drafters of the UN Charter envisioned an organisation engaged in the entire spectrum of conflict management and resolution, from preventive measures, to ad hoc responses to crisis, to the long-term stabilisation of conflict areas. The UN's responses to conflict are often grouped into the three stages of peacemaking, peacekeeping and peace-building. Peacemaking involves diplomatic efforts to manage or resolve the conflict1 and peace-building strives to stabilise post-conflict situations by creating or strengthening national institutions.2 Peacekeeping operations, however, have occupied a somewhat ambiguous place between the diplomats and the democracy.