ABSTRACT
Peacebuilding constitutes a profound change in the way that the United Nations (UN) pursues its core mandate of maintaining international peace and security. The chapter describes the changes that are brought about by peacebuilding, explores the shifts in the global security environment that made peacebuilding necessary, and outlines the political developments that made peacebuilding possible. Despite the importance of peacebuilding for UN peace operations, there is still no generally accepted definition. In 2007 the UN Policy Committee agreed to a rather limited non-political description of the process. The general acceptance of a democratic state model along with a liberal market economic system facilitated the possibility of UN intervention into member states. Although some UN agencies such as the UN Development Programme (UNDP) have made solving conflicts a central objective, the overall UN development system tends to see development as a separate agenda and shies away from submitting to Security Council political mandates.
