ABSTRACT
Operations of this kind became more numerous from the late 1980s onward. Relations between the major powers were improving; so a proposal to take action through the UN was less likely to be vetoed by one of the five permanent members of the Security Council – America, Britain, China, France, and the Soviet Union (which has now been replaced by Russia). There was also growing concern about stopping civil wars – which, in recent years, have outnumbered international ones.
