List of UN peacekeeping missions

Encyclopedia : L : LI : LIS : List of UN peacekeeping missions

UN refugee camp in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

UN peacekeeping missions, dark blue = current, light blue = former

This is a list of UN peacekeeping missions since the United Nations was founded in 1945, with the dates of deployment, the name of the related conflict, and the name of the UN operation. Peacekeeping, as defined by the United Nations, is a way to help countries torn by conflict create conditions for sustainable peace. UN peacekeepers—soldiers and military officers, civilian police officers and civilian personnel from many countries—monitor and observe peace processes that emerge in post-conflict situations and assist ex-combatants in implementing the peace agreements they have signed. Such assistance comes in many forms, including confidence-building measures, power-sharing arrangements, electoral support, strengthening the rule of law, and economic and social development. All operations must include the resolution of conflicts through the use of force to be considered valid under the charter of the United Nations.

IDP camp in Sudan resulting from the Darfur conflict.

The Charter of the United Nations gives the UN Security Council the power and responsibility to take collective action to maintain international peace and security. For this reason, the international community usually looks to the Security Council to authorize peacekeeping operations. Most of these operations are established and implemented by the United Nations itself with troops serving under UN operational command. In other cases, where direct UN involvement is not considered appropriate or feasible, the Council authorizes regional organizations such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, the Economic Community of West African States or coalitions of willing countries to implement certain peacekeeping or peace enforcement functions. In modern times, peacekeeping operations have evolved into many different functions, including diplomatic relations with other countries, international bodies of justice (such as the International Criminal Court), and eliminating problems such as landmines that can lead to new incidents of fighting.

Completed missions

Africa

Americas

Asia

¹  The first flag shown is that of the West Papua (West New Guinea), the country that had been arranged to succeed the Dutch colony. However, the Netherlands, whose flag is the second shown, was later forced to hand over the territory to Indonesia, whose flag is last.

²  Shown are the flags of the newly independent East Timor and its former occupier, Indonesia (in that order).

Europe

¹  This mission operated within the current successor states to the Former Yugoslavia of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro). The flags are shown in this order.

²  Prevlaka Peninsula was claimed by both Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) and the flags are shown in this order. Upon resolution, all parties accepted Croatia's claim to the territory.

Middle East

Dates of operation	Name of Operation	Location	Conflict	Website
1956–1967	First United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF I)		Egypt	Suez Crisis, Six-Day War	[link]
			Israel
1958	United Nations Observation Group in Lebanon (UNOGIL)		Lebanon	Lebanon crisis of 1958	[link]
1963–1964	United Nations Yemen Observation Mission (UNYOM)		Yemen	Yemen Civil War (See also Yemen Arab Republic)	[link]
1973–1979	Second United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF II)		Egypt	Yom Kippur War	[link]
			Israel
1988–1991	United Nations Iran-Iraq Military Observer Group (UNIIMOG)		Iran	Iran-Iraq War	[link]
			Iraq
1991–2003	United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM)		Iraq	Gulf War	[link]
			Kuwait

Current deployment

Africa

Americas

Asia

Europe

¹  The United Nations and all foreign governments but Turkey recognise the sovereignty of the Republic of Cyprus, whose flag is shown first, over the whole island of Cyprus. The second flag is that of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a de facto state, by virtue of controlling the northern third of the island, which is recognized only by Turkey and the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

²  There is no official flag of Kosovo. The top flag is the flag of Albania, used by the Albanian-dominated administration and the vast majority of Kosovo Albanians. The bottom flag is the flag of Serbia and Montenegro, used by the Serb-inhabited area of north Kosovo. For more see flag of Kosovo.

Middle East

Start of operation	Name of Operation	Location	Conflict	Website
1948	United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO)	[http://encycl.opentopia.com/[not available]#endnote_ME 1]	Middle East	(Monitors the various ceasefires and assists UNDOF and UNIFIL)	[link]
1974	United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF)	[http://encycl.opentopia.com/[not available]#endnote_GH 2]	Golan Heights	Agreed withdrawal by Syrian and Israeli forces following the Yom Kippur War.	[link]
1978	United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)		Lebanon	Lebanese Civil War and Syrian occupation of Lebanon	[link]

¹  There is no officially recognized flag of the entire region of the Middle East. Shown is a map of the Middle East.

²  Various regions of the Golan Heights have been claimed by Israel, Lebanon, and Syria; all three flags are shown, in that order.

See also

• List of countries where UN peacekeepers are currently deployed
• Timeline of UN peacekeeping missions

References

See individual mission websites with their listing.

• [UN peacekeeping website]

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.