ABSTRACT
In the United Nations (UN) enforcement action in Korea, the Security Council explored the peaceful end of the conciliation coercion spectrum and found a number of ways to combine peacekeeping with peaceful-settlement activity. In the two instances in which UN peacekeeping missions were launched without the agreement of all of the key players, the results were less than wholly successful. Two kinds of regional conflict have dominated the post-Cold War years, each with different implications for the UN's peace-and-security functions. First is the dispute that threatens the important interests of a major military state. The second category of regional conflict involves smaller countries in areas of secondary strategic importance over issues that primarily concern the disputants. If Security Council endorsement of the Namibia agreements provided legitimacy for the settlement, it was the UN forces on the ground that had to ensure the freedom of the elections, which were the last step on the road to independence.
