Understanding Peacekeeping

This comprehensive guide explores the theory and practice of peace operations, focusing on the updated insights from Understanding Peacekeeping.

Peace operations serve as a crucial mechanism for managing armed conflicts and ensuring the safety of civilians. The updated third edition of Understanding Peacekeeping offers a thorough introduction to the theoretical, historical, and political dimensions of peace operations. This edition has been fully revised and expanded to reflect the latest developments in the field, making it a vital resource for scholars and practitioners alike.

Utilizing a dataset that encompasses nearly two hundred historical and contemporary missions, Understanding Peacekeeping evaluates the evolving characteristics of the international landscape in which these operations take place. It delves into the strategic objectives behind peace operations and highlights the significant challenges that modern peacekeepers encounter. The book features updated chapters and introduces five new ones that cover critical topics such as stabilization, organized crime, exit strategies, force generation, and the use of force.

The structure of the book is divided into four parts. The first part summarizes key concepts and issues related to peace operations. The second part traces the historical evolution of peacekeeping from 1945 to 2020. The third part assesses the strategic aims of peace operations, including prevention, observation, assistance, enforcement, stabilization, and administration. Finally, the fourth part looks ahead to address the primary challenges facing today's peacekeepers, such as force generation, regionalization, privatization, civilian protection, gender issues, policing, and organized crime.