Exploring the relationship between war and peace in UN peace operations

This dissertation project explores how the relationship between peace and war has been understood in UN peace operations policies and practices, and how this relationship is (re)negotiated and (co)conditioned from the 1950s until today.

When the United Nations introduced the concept of peacekeeping, operations were required to adhere to three basic principles of consent, impartiality, and non-use of force to secure the legitimacy of the organization by distinguishing peacekeeping from the conduct of war. This is far from the practice of UN peacekeepers on the ground today. To account for contemporary threats such as violent extremism and terrorism, peace operations have become more complex, robust, and offensive in the last decades. With this development of operations, the use of force has become a more prominent dimension of peace operations.

The development of peacekeeping

The dissertation project explores how we can understand this development, where the decision to use force to achieve peace comes from and has developed, and how the relationship between war and peace can be understood within UN peace operations.