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Authors: Dina Gilmutdinova, First Secretary, Department of International Organizations, Ministry
of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Candidate of Science (Political Science)
Liliya Romadan, research secretary, Department of Africa, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian
Federation, postgraduate student at the Department of World Political Processes, School of Political Sci-
ence, Moscow State Institute (University) of International Relations, Mnistry of Foreign Affairs of the
Russian Federation;
THE UNITED NATIONS peacekeeping opera-
tions are a key means of settlement of armed con-
flicts and post-conflict political normalization. Due
to the escalation of some conflicts, they are more
important in the 21st century than ever before.
The United Nations has carried out 71 peacekeep-
ing operations between 1948 and 2015, with 3,395
people being killed in them. In recent years, UN
peacekeeping activities have increased vastly in scale and have had more resources allocated for
them. As of August 31, 2015, there were 16 peacekeeping operations underway with nearly
125,000 people from 122 countries involved in them. More than 106,000 of them were troops,
police and military observers, and the rest were civilians and volunteers.
New threats mean that accumulated peacekeeping experience needs a large-scale analysis.
For Russia, participation in UN peacekeeping operations is an important aspect of foreign policy,
as it is one of the determinants of the international prestige of the country and ensures it con-
siderable political payoffs from conflict-stricken areas after the settlement of the conflicts.
Today's conflicts are completely different from former ones. They are marked by a diversity of
features, including cross-border threats and challenges. Modern conflicts are normally domestic
collisions and have ethnic, religious, territorial, political, economic, or other causes.
Effectively, UN peacekeeping operations are no longer peacekeeping activities pure and simple.
Today, peacekeeping forces usually have mandates authorizing them to take up matters of gov-
ernment and look for solutions to conflicts. Peacekeepers often include large police and civilian
contingents in addition to troops. Their duties include protection of civilians, refugees and dis-
placed persons, assistance in organizing national police forces, control of human rights obser-
vance and elections, defense of democracy and civil society, and help in rebuilding economies
ruined by conflicts.
As UN peacekeeping activities grow in scale, use of modern technology in peacekeeping oper-
ations, primarily means of communication and means of surveillance such as unmanned aerial
vehicles (UAVs or drones), is increasingly an issue.
The council allowed UAVs to be used only in limited offensives to pre-empt attacks from armed
groups.
http://interaffairs.ru
United Nations Peacekeeping Activities in the 21st Century