ABSTRACT
Africa has emerged as the laboratory for the experimentation and deployment of peacekeeping operations. The naive UN deployment in Congo in the 1960s; relative success in Namibia in the late 1 980s; failure in Rwanda in the early 1990s; and humiliation in Sierra Leone in the late 1990s; all demonstrate a general acceptance among the international community that given the nature, complexity and multiplicity of wars and armed conflicts in Africa - the majority of which have proved resistant to resolution - the continent provides viable opportunities to experiment with all types of peacekeeping concepts and operational innovations. Post-colonial Africa has therefore seen the deployment of a variety of peacekeeping and peace support operations, often cast in terms of humanitarian intervention or pacific settlement of disputes, for the maintenance of international peace and security. They include UN peacekeeping and peace support operations; African peacekeeping and multinational intervention forces organised under the auspices of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now African Union (AU); External Pivotal State Conflict Stabilisation Peacekeeping deployments; and sub-regional intergovernmental 4Collective' peacekeeping and conflict management forces deployed by the regional economic communities.
