The Metamorphoses of the UN Peacekeeping Principles: How the End of the Cold War Reshaped Them (1988–1992)

Abstract

The end of the Cold War was for the international system, and particularly to the United Nations, an opportunity to make use of all the prerogatives found in the UN Charter to protect and secure international peace and security on the globe. The change of the international system also had an impact over the peacekeeping mechanism, created and developed by the UN during the Cold War, to watch over and protect the peace. The 90s were also seen as a great opportunity for the international organization to accomplish its purpose of preventing future generations from the scourge of war. During this period, peacekeeping and its principles suffered a series of modifications which would later have an important role in the operations authorized in the middle of 1990s. The present paper’s purpose is to analyze these metamorphoses and present how they evolved from 1988 to 1992, to understand why these years were important for the formulation of the new peacekeeping mechanism and present the basis on which the operations were authorized starting with 1993. The study is divided into four different chapters. The first will present the methodology used to address the problem. The second will offer a definition of peacekeeping and of its principles, whereas the third will examine the metamorphoses suffered because of the change of the international system. The final chapter will put forward the conclusions and will present prospects of analysis on the topic.