United Nations Peace Operations: Evolution, challenges, and new dynamics

Abstract

We analyze the operational, institutional, and normative evolution of peace operations, intending to highlight discourses and practices that sought to model this peaceful mechanism of international politics. United Nations peace operations are central to our analysis but we recognize that other international organizations have a similar tool. The reason for choosing them is justified by the universal character of both troop mobilization and the possibility of geographical deployment sites, as well as the complex operational structure and various political actors present in this type of deployment. We start presenting how peace operations are divided into three stages: classic or traditional (during the Cold War), transition phase (1990s), and the consolidation of complex operations, from the perspective of sustainable peace in which the conditions necessary to provide political stability and security for society fall on the peace process conducted by the United Nations peace operations. In the last section, we discuss recent developments in practices and discourses associated with peace operations in which terms such as local empowerment, human security, and prevention become more prominent and operational, often disputed by those who evaluate the results of these mechanisms.