Assessing the success of UN peacekeeping operations

Despite the growth in the study of UN peacekeeping, one crucial aspect has been neglected: how to judge whether a peacekeeping operation has been successful or not. There are four ways that operational success can be measured: mandate performance, facilitation of conflict resolution, conflict containment, and limitation of casualties. Each of these indicators is explored to determine its validity and relative importance. Then, using these criteria, an assessment is made of the success of the 39 UN peacekeeping operations conducted from 1945 to 1996, judging each operation as either a complete success, a moderate success, or a failure. Following this assessment, selected cases illustrate how the indicators have been applied. Thus a set of criteria is developed which can be used to assess the success of future peacekeeping operations, and an evaluation is made of the historical record of peacekeeping.