ABSTRACT
Peacekeeping was, directly after the Cold War, seen as the panacea for the problems in the world. In early 1991, the UN was carrying out eight field missions, most of them 'traditional', long-standing and a result of inter-state conflicts. At UN Headquarters a system is under development to formalize the participation of Member States, establishing command and control definitions and a 'Transfer of Authority' mechanism. Command designates the authority a person has to order subordinates into actions with adequate resources, to achieve a defined goal. The lack of structure and staff effectiveness as well as the lack of up-front funding that accompanied mission start-up made it almost miraculous that missions got started at all, and that many were performed with considerable success. The problems in a mission area are not only of a political and military/operational nature, there are significant humanitarian and economical dimensions too.
