United Nations peacekeeping Peacekeeping by the United Nations is a role held by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations as " a unique and dynamic instrument developed by the Organization as a way to help countries torn by conflict to create the conditions for lasting peace " . It is distinguished from both peacebuilding and peacemaking . Peacekeepers monitor and observe peace processes in post - conflict areas and assist ex - combatants in implementing the peace agreement s they may have signed . Such assistance comes in many forms , including confidence - building measures , power - sharing arrangements , electoral support , strengthening the rule of law , and economic and social development . Accordingly UN peacekeepers ( often referred to as Blue Berets because of their light blue beret s or helmets ) can include soldiers , police officers , and civilian personnel . The United Nations Charter gives the United Nations Security Council the power and responsibility to take collective action to maintain international peace and security . For this reason , the international community usually looks to the Security Council to authorize peacekeeping operations . Most of these operations are established and implemented by the United Nations itself , with troops serving under UN operational control . In these cases , peacekeepers remain members of their respective armed forces , and do not constitute an independent " UN army " , as the UN does not have such a force . In cases where direct UN involvement is not considered appropriate or feasible , the Council authorizes regional organizations such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ( NATO ) , the Economic Community of West African States , or coalitions of willing countries to undertake peacekeeping or peace - enforcement tasks . Hervé Ladsous has served as the head of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations ( DPKO ) since 2 September 2011 . DPKO ' s highest level doctrine document , entitled " United Nations Peacekeeping Operations : Principles and Guidelines " was issued in 2008 . Formation . Pakistan contributes the highest number of troops ( military and law enforcement ) to various UN Peacekeeping Operations worldwide . Once a peace treaty has been negotiated , the parties involved might ask the United Nations for a peacekeeping force to oversee various elements of the agreed upon plan . This is often done because a group controlled by the United Nations is less likely to follow the interests of any one party , since it itself is controlled by many groups , namely the 15 - member Security Council and the intentionally diverse United Nations Secretariat . If the Security Council approves the creation of a mission , then the Department of Peacekeeping Operations begins planning for the necessary elements . At this point , the senior leadership team is selected . The department will then seek contributions from member nations . Since the UN has no standing force or supplies , it must form ad hoc coalitions for every task undertaken . Doing so results in both the possibility of failure to form a suitable force , and a general slowdown in procurement once the operation is in the field . Romeo Dallaire , force commander in Rwanda during the Rwandan Genocide there , described the problems this poses by comparison to more traditional military deployments : " He told me the UN was a ' pull ' system , not a ' push ' system like I had been used to with NATO , because the UN had absolutely no pool of resources to draw on . You had to make a request for everything you needed , and then you had to wait while that request was analyzed . . . For instance , soldiers everywhere have to eat and drink . In a push system , food and water for the number of soldiers deployed is automatically supplied . In a pull system , you have to ask for those rations , and no common sense seems to ever apply . " ( " Shake Hands With the Devil " , Dallaire , pp . 99 - 100 ) While the peacekeeping force is being assembled , a variety of diplomatic activities are being undertaken by UN staff . The exact size and strength of the force must be agreed to by the government of the nation whose territory the conflict is on . The Rules of Engagement must be developed and approved by both the parties involved and the Security Council . These give the specific mandate and scope of the mission ( e . g . when may the peacekeepers , if armed , use force , and where may they go within the host nation ) . Often , it will be mandated that peacekeepers have host government minders with them whenever they leave their base . This complexity has caused problems in the field . When all agreements are in place , the required personnel are assembled , and final approval has been given by the Security Council , the peacekeepers are deployed to the region in question . Cost . In 1993 , annual UN peacekeeping costs had peaked at some $ 3 . 6 billion , reflecting the expense of operations in the former Yugoslavia and Somalia . By 1998 , costs had dropped to just under $ 1 billion . With the resurgence of larger - scale operations , costs for UN peacekeeping rose to $ 3 billion in 2001 . In 2004 , the approved budget was $ 2 . 8 billion , although the total amount was higher than that . For the fiscal year which ended on June 30 , 2006 , UN peacekeeping costs were about US $ 5 . 03 billion . All member states are legally obliged to pay their share of peacekeeping costs under a complex formula that they themselves have established . Despite this legal obligation , member states owed approximately $ 1 . 20 billion in current and back peacekeeping dues as of June 2004 . Structure . A United Nations peacekeeping mission has three power centers . The first is the Special Representative of the Secretary - General , the official leader of the mission . This person is responsible for all political and diplomatic activity , overseeing relations with both the parties to the peace treaty and the UN member - states in general . They are often a senior member of the Secretariat . The second is the Force Commander , who is responsible for the military forces deployed . They are a senior officer of their nation ' s armed services , and are often from the nation committing the highest number of troops to the project . Finally , the Chief Administrative Officer oversees supplies and logistics , and coordinates the procurement of any supplies needed . History . Cold War peacekeeping . United Nations peacekeeping was initially developed during the Cold War as a means of resolving conflicts between states by deploying unarmed or lightly armed military personnel from a number of countries , under UN command , to areas where warring parties were in need of a neutral party to observe the peace process . Peacekeepers could be called in when the major international powers ( the five permanent members of the Security Council ) tasked the UN with bringing closure to conflicts threatening regional stability and international peace and security . These included a number of so - called " proxy wars " waged by client states of the superpowers . As of February 2009 , there have been 63 UN peacekeeping operations since 1948 , with sixteen operations ongoing . Suggestions for new missions arise every year . The first peacekeeping mission was launched in 1948 . This mission , the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization ( UNTSO ) , was sent to the newly created State of Israel , where a conflict between the Israelis and the Arab states over the creation of Israel had just reached a ceasefire . The UNTSO remains in operation to this day , although the Israeli - Palestinian Conflict has certainly not abated . Almost a year later , the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan ( UNMOGIP ) was authorized to monitor relations between the two nations , which were split off from each other following the United Kingdom ' s decolonization of the Indian subcontinent . As the Korean War ends with the Korean Armistice Agreement in 1953 , UN forces remained along the south side of demilitarized zone until 1967 , when American and South Korean forces took over . Returning its attention to the conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors , the United Nations responded to Suez Crisis of 1956 , a war between the alliance of the United Kingdom , France , and Israel , and Egypt , which was supported by other Arab nations . When a ceasefire was declared in 1957 , Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs ( and future Prime Minister ) Lester Bowles Pearson suggested that the United Nations station a peacekeeping force in the Suez in order to ensure that the ceasefire was honored by both sides . Pearson had initially suggested that the force consist of mainly Canadian soldiers , but the Egyptians were suspicious of having a Commonwealth nation defend them against the United Kingdom and her allies . In the end , a wide variety of national forces were drawn upon to ensure national diversity . Pearson would win the Nobel Peace Prize for this work , and he is today considered a father of modern peacekeeping . In 1988 the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the United Nations peacekeeping forces . The press release stated that the forces " represent the manifest will of the community of nations " and have " made a decisive contribution " to the resolution of conflict around the world . Since 1991 . The end of the Cold War precipitated a dramatic shift in UN and multilateral peacekeeping . In a new spirit of cooperation , the Security Council established larger and more complex UN peacekeeping missions , often to help implement comprehensive peace agreements between protagonists in intra - State conflicts and civil wars . Furthermore , peacekeeping came to involve more and more non - military elements that ensured the proper functioning of civic functions , such as elections . The UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations was created in 1992 to support this increased demand for such missions . By and large , the new operations were successful . In El Salvador and Mozambique , for example , peacekeeping provided ways to achieve self - sustaining peace . Some efforts failed , perhaps as the result of an overly optimistic assessment of what UN peacekeeping could accomplish . While complex missions in Cambodia and Mozambique were ongoing , the Security Council dispatched peacekeepers to conflict zones like Somalia , where neither ceasefires nor the consent of all the parties in conflict had been secured . These operations did not have the manpower , nor were they supported by the required political will , to implement their mandates . The failures — most notably the 1994 Rwandan Genocide and the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica and Bosnia and Herzegovina — led to a period of retrenchment and self - examination in UN peacekeeping . That period led , in part , to the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission , which works to implement stable peace through some of the same civic functions that peacekeepers also work on , such as elections . The Commission currently works with six countries , all in Africa . Participation . The UN Charter stipulates that to assist in maintaining peace and security around the world , all member states of the UN should make available to the Security Council necessary armed forces and facilities . Since 1948 , close to 130 nations have contributed military and civilian police personnel to peace operations . While detailed records of all personnel who have served in peacekeeping missions since 1948 are not available , it is estimated that up to one million soldiers , police officers and civilians have served under the UN flag in the last 56 years . As of June 2013 , 114 countries were contributing a total 91 , 216 military observers , police , and troops to United Nations Peacekeeping Operations . Pakistan contributed the highest number , with 8 , 230 personnel , followed by Bangladesh ( 7 , 986 ) , India ( 7 , 878 ) , Ethiopia ( 6 , 502 ) , Rwanda ( 4 , 686 ) , Nigeria ( 4 , 684 ) , Nepal ( 4 , 495 ) , Jordan ( 3 , 374 ) , Ghana ( 2 , 859 ) , and Egypt ( 2 , 750 ) . In January 2004 , BBC described the highly disciplined Bangladeshi UN Force as " The Cream of UN Peacekeepers " . The head of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations , Under - Secretary - General Jean - Marie Guéhenno , has reminded Member States that “ the provision of well - equipped , well - trained and disciplined military and police personnel to UN peacekeeping operations is a collective responsibility of Member States . Countries from the South should not and must not be expected to shoulder this burden alone ” . As of March 2008 , in addition to military and police personnel , 5 , 187 international civilian personnel , 2 , 031 UN Volunteers and 12 , 036 local civilian personnel worked in UN peacekeeping missions . Through April 2008 , 2 , 468 people from over 100 countries have been killed while serving on peacekeeping missions . Many of those came from India ( 127 ) , Canada ( 114 ) and Ghana ( 113 ) . Thirty percent of the fatalities in the first 55 years of UN peacekeeping occurred in the years 1993 - 1995 . About 4 . 5 % of the troops and civilian police deployed in UN peacekeeping missions come from the European Union and less than one percent from the United States ( USA ) . The rate of reimbursement by the UN for troop contributing countries per peacekeeper per month include : $ 1 , 028 for pay and allowances ; $ 303 supplementary pay for specialists ; $ 68 for personal clothing , gear and equipment ; and $ 5 for personal weaponry . Reception . Peacekeeping , human trafficking , and forced prostitution . Reporters witnessed a rapid increase in prostitution in Cambodia and Mozambique after UN peacekeeping forces moved in . In the 1996 U . N . study The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children , former first lady of Mozambique Graça Machel documented : " In 6 out of 12 country studies on sexual exploitation of children in situations of armed conflict prepared for the present report , the arrival of peacekeeping troops has been associated with a rapid rise in child prostitution . " Gita Sahgal spoke out in 2004 with regard to the fact that prostitution and sex abuse crops up wherever humanitarian intervention efforts are set up . She observed : " The issue with the UN is that peacekeeping operation s unfortunately seem to be doing the same thing that other militaries do . Even the guardians have to be guarded . " Human rights in United Nations missions . The following table chart illustrates confirmed accounts of crimes and human rights violations committed by United Nations soldiers , peacekeepers , and employees . Proposed reform . Brahimi analysis . In response to criticism , particularly of the cases of sexual abuse by peacekeepers , the UN has taken steps toward reforming its operations . The Brahimi Report was the first of many steps to recap former peacekeeping missions , isolate flaws , and take steps to patch these mistakes to ensure the efficiency of future peacekeeping missions . The UN has vowed to continue to put these practices into effect when performing peacekeeping operations in the future . The technocratic aspects of the reform process have been continued and revitalised by the DPKO in its ' Peace Operations 2010 ' reform agenda . This included an increase in personnel , the harmonization of the conditions of service of field and headquarters staff , the development of guidelines and standard operating procedures , and improving the partnership arrangement between the Department of Peacekeeping Operations ( DPKO ) and the United Nations Development Programme ( UNDP ) , African Union and European Union . 2008 capstone doctrine entitled " United Nations Peacekeeping Operations : Principles and Guidelines " incorporates and builds on the Brahimi analysis . Rapid reaction force . One suggestion to account for delays such as the one in Rwanda , is a rapid reaction force : a standing group , administered by the UN and deployed by the Security Council , that receives its troops and support from current Security Council members and is ready for quick deployment in the event of future genocides . Restructuring of the UN secretariat . The UN peacekeeping capacity was enhanced in 2007 by augmenting the DPKO with the new Department of Field Support ( DFS ) . Whereas the new entity serves as a key enabler by co - ordinating the administration and logistics in UN peacekeeping operations , DPKO concentrates on policy planning and providing strategic directions .