Improving the prospects for future international peace operations : workshop proceedings.

The years following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the consequent end of the Cold War have seen a rapid expansion in both the number and scope of international peace operations. Most of these endeavors have been carried out under the aegis of the United Nations, although there are some notable exceptions. Many of these operations have been of the traditional peacekeeping type, in which a truce, to which all parties agree, is maintained by the international force whose presence is accepted by all sides (e.g., Cyprus, Multinational Force and Observers in the Sinai). However, there has been an increasing tendency of these operations to go well beyond this traditional mold. In these operations, there may be an inclination for the international force to be caught up in processes that go well beyond maintaining a cease-fire or promoting a peace settlement. Unfortunately, as the scope of these interventions has increased, the United Nations has been unable to keep up with all the demands that they present. Severe setbacks in Somalia and Bosnia have demonstrated glaring weaknesses in its responses. Difficulties have been in part due to a scarcity of resources and a major increase in the number of operations to deal with. But another overriding problem has been an incoherence of organization, planning, doctrine, and policy on the part of the international body.