Options for Peace-Keeping

Abstract

Peace-keeping is a term which has come into general use during the past 25 years to describe a particular type of activity in the cause of international peace. The activity itself goes back a long way but it is only since the mid-1950s that it has acquired a distinctive characterisation. What it encompasses is the non-forceful deployment in tense or potentially difficult situations of inspectors, intermediaries, or interposers. The fact that their method of operation does not rely on the use of force means that their very presence requires the assent of the protagonists and this also sets the condition for their success: that the protagonists respect and co-operate with them. In turn, this requires that the peace-keepers should act impartially and be seen to be acting impartially.