ABSTRACT
The history of United Nations peacekeeping is a mirror to the record of the organization's own evolution: the initial high hopes, the many frustrations on the ground, and the sometimes bitter disappointments in the end. Peacekeeping as an institution evolved in the grey zone between pacific settlement and military enforcement. Peacekeeping as an institution evolved in the grey zone between pacific settlement and military enforcement. International organization is an important means for arranging the functioning of the state-based international system more satisfactorily than had proved to be the case in conditions of international anarchy. International organization can be viewed as merely an agreement by, of and for states to engage in regular consultation and establish joint machinery for the formulation and implementation of collective decisions. Collective security rejects the pursuit of security by policies of isolation, self-help, alliances or world government. Unlike pacific settlement, collective security is not concerned with the causes and conditions of war.
