The Paradigm Shift--from Traditional to Multidimensional Peacekeeping: Reflections on Achievements, Failures, Challenges, and Prospects in the 21st Century

Abstract

The peacekeeping concept dates back to pre-League of Nations days, starting with mere inter-positioning of military personnel operations to what we have today as multidimensional operations, since the inception of the United Nations (UN). It is an undebatable fact that the conflict management technique of peacekeeping remains one of the most effective tools that the UN has deployed in terms of international conflict management. Undeniably though, its implementation across the globe in the past has come with mixed results—successes, failures, and challenges. This paper evaluates the challenges and prospects of the phenomenon in this new millennium, having, however, analyzed the impact the technique has so far brought to bear on the international conflict management role of the UN in particular and the international community at large. The study is a content analysis of the concept of peacekeeping, using secondary and tertiary sources. Amidst the successes, failures, and challenges, the potency of peacekeeping as a global conflict management tool in the 21^st Century is without a doubt. Nonetheless, what we need is efficient and effective reforms of the concept under the leadership of the United Nations system.

DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/13-4-04

Publication date: February 28^th 2023