United Nations Peacekeeping Forces | Peacekeeping Missions, Conflict Resolution & Diplomacy | Britannica (original) (raw)
Track how UN Peacekeeping Forces helped end tension between the Turks and the Greeks in the civil war at Nicosia, capital of CyprusUnited Nations Peacekeeping Forces helping to end the civil unrest between Turkish and Greek factions in Cyprus in 1963; from the UNICEF television series International Zone.
See all videos for this article
United Nations Peacekeeping Forces, international armed forces first used in 1948 to observe cease-fires in Kashmir and Palestine. Although not specifically mentioned in the United Nations (UN) Charter, the use of international forces as a buffer between warring parties pending troop withdrawals and negotiations—a practice that became known as peacekeeping—was formalized in 1956 during the Suez Crisis between Egypt, Israel, France, and the United Kingdom. Although peacekeeping missions have taken many forms, they have in common the fact that they are designed to be peaceful, that they involve troops from several countries, and that the troops serve under the authority of the UN Security Council. The UN Peacekeeping Forces were awarded the 1988 Nobel Prize for Peace.