ABSTRACT
The Security Council began deploying peace operations to serve wider ranging functions, enabling the provision of humanitarian assistance, protecting minorities, promoting human rights and the rule of law and supporting post-conflict reconstruction. The rapid changes in the mandated functions of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions along with some stark failures of the 1990s spurred efforts to rethink and strengthen peace operations. UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutrous Ghali's An Agenda for Peace reflected the optimism of the immediate post-Cold War period. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan charged a panel led by former Algerian Foreign Minister Lakhdar Brahimi to carry out a thorough review of UN peace and security activities. Political dissension tends to be most visible in debates at the UN Security Council. Despite long-standing attention to the lack of standby capacity, it is still the norm that troops and materiel for peace operations must be gathered on a case-by-case basis.
