Evolution of the Concept of the UN Peace-Keeping Missions

An assessment of the historical trend of the UN peace-keeping missions indicates that a quantitative and qualitative evolution of these missions has occurred in the last two decades. This gradual evolution has moved from traditional peacekeeping missions aimed at limited duty of monitoring the cease-fire mostly in armed conflict among States to more complicated and multi-faced missions with the participation of military, police and civil and humanitarian forces who are employed for armed civil conflicts. One of the concerns regarding this quantitative and qualitative evolution in the UN peace-keeping missions is the possible conversion of this mechanism to a strong leverage for regime change policies by Western powers. The present article aims to study the concept of "the UN peace-keeping mission" and its evolution, utilizing the UN documents and reports.