ABSTRACT
The peacekeeping missions organized between 1956 and 1988 were different from those of the 1990s and of today. The first UN missions that were deployed were of a traditional nature and are called ‘first-generation’ operations. Those undertaken since the end of the Cold War are typically called ‘second-generation’ operations. Since then, various scholars have described or discussed current types of missions as ‘third-generation’ operations (see Doyle and Sambanis 2006; Özerdem 2006; Thakur 2006) or even ‘fourth-generation’ operations (see Alagappa 1998; Malan 1998; Griffin 1999; Thakur 2006). This chapter will use a more general approach to post-Cold War missions and characterize these missions as ‘second-generation’ or ‘multidimensional’ operations. The increase of threats against international security, by type and number, led the UN to adapt its peacekeeping operations to international changes. This generated a significant increase in the number of peacekeeping missions deployed and in the number of military personnel engaged in peacekeeping missions.
