Peace missions are defined as multilateral peace operations that have been launched to help stabilise societies after an external or internal violent conflict, to maintain peace or to build the foundations for a durable peace.
Peace missions have come to public attention through the deployment of UN peace operations. The actors in these peace missions are diverse. According to calculations of the Swedish peace research institute SIPRI, 52 peace missions were conducted in 2010 of which 19 were led by the United Nations, 12 by the European Union, seven by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and three by NATO. The mission, mandate, composition and dimension of peace operations differ greatly. Many are political support operations. Within these operations, some are purely ‘observer’ missions, while others support the build-up of security forces (police or army). Usually peace missions are multidimensional operations, meaning they include military and civilian actors who are responsible for a range of different activities: political, social, cultural and security-related, for example.
- Home
- Wars and violent conflicts
- Peace and demobilisation
- Military capacities and means
- Natural resources and conflicts
- Conventional Weapons
- Weapons of mass destruction
- Arms control
- Environmental safety
- Country portraits
- Data tables
- Navigation and operation
- Imprint