Peace operations remain a principal tool for managing armed conflict and protecting civilians.
The fully revised expanded and updated third edition of Understanding Peacekeeping provides a
comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to the theory history and politics of peace
operations. Drawing on a dataset of nearly two hundred historical and contemporary missions
this book evaluates the changing characteristics of the contemporary international environment
in which peace operations are deployed the strategic purposes peace operations are intended to
achieve and the major challenges facing today's peacekeepers. All the chapters have been
revised and updated and five new chapters have been added - on stabilization organized crime
exit strategies force generation and the use of force. Part 1 summarizes the central concepts
and issues related to peace operations. Part 2 charts the historical development of
peacekeeping from 1945 through to 2020. Part 3 analyses the strategic purposes that United
Nations and other peace operations are intended to achieve - namely prevention observation
assistance enforcement stabilization and administration. Part 4 looks forward and examines
the central challenges facing today's peacekeepers: force generation the regionalization and
privatization of peace operations the use of force civilian protection gender issues
policing and organized crime and exit strategies.
