UNITED NATIONS PEACEKEEPING FORCES

Norwegian UN peacekeeping troops keep watch on a cease-fire line in southern Lebanon, 1978. international forces founded in 1948 by the authority of the United Nations Security Council to help establish or maintain peace in areas of armed conflict. The forces were awarded the 1988 Nobel Prize for Peace for representing the world community's will to employ peaceful methods to resolve conflicts. The Peacekeeping Forces were first organized to monitor a truce between Israel and its Arab neighbours in 1948. Members of the UN Secretariat and a few soldiers stationed themselves in the disputed area of Palestine to observe and report any violations of the truce. As conflicts arose in other parts of the world, such as the discord between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, the UN sent groups of observers and lightly armed military forces. In 1956 Dag Hammarskjld, then UN secretary-general, outlined the guidelines for future employment of peacekeeping forces: permission of all disputing parties is required before intervention; negotiation and persuasion are to be used instead of violence; only the UN Security Council may give orders to the Peacekeeping Forces; and all member nations of the UN must financially support the forces. The latter requirement often is not observed because some member nations refuse for political reasons to pay dues for the forces. Despite such problems with unwilling financial supporters, the UN Peacekeeping Forces continue to work toward peace around the world. They are often employed in areas where a cease-fire is established, but no formal peace treaty has yet been signed, or they maintain a buffer zone between disputing parties. The forces' activities since receiving the Nobel Prize have included helping Namibia make its transition to independence in 1989 and serving as a buffer along the Iraq-Kuwait border following the Persian Gulf War in 1991.