ABSTRACT
In the absence of any other global agency willing to take on such a role the UN will be looked to and called upon by many to lead the interventions in a variety of global crises. From 1991 the UN Security Council has approved over 100 resolutions in an attempt to expand the functions of peacekeeping and enforcement. During the 1990s the issues surrounding the former Yugoslavia provoked the Security Council to create the UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR), which deployed some 14,000 soldiers to the Balkans. But the Yugoslavia conflict also exposed the limitations of the UN to deal with largescale military conflict. The UN was unprepared for late twentieth century civil wars and their accompanying ethnic cleansing and humanitarian crises. The need for the UN to be supported in their work by other international organizations became obvious. The involvement of NATO, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)2 and the European Union (EU)3 in the Yugoslavia conflict eventually left the UN with mainly a humanitarian responsibility amidst the refugees.
