Summary

Peacekeeping in Global Politics investigates the changing role of peacekeeping and competing perspectives about what that role should be. It begins by addressing broad issues connected with the transition from a Westphalian to post-Westphalian international society, the ethical and legal dilemmas provoked by armed intervention, and the alternative ways of conceptualising the role that peacekeeping plays. It goes on to critically chart the development of 'traditional' peacekeeping before outlining how the role of force in peacekeeping operations has changed and the close links between peacekeeping, conflict prevention and conflict resolution. The final part of the volume focuses specifically on globalization and the effects that this has had on peacekeeping practices. In particular, it focuses on the changing conflict environment, the growing tendency towards subcontracting peacekeeping duties, and the development of regional peacekeeping capabilities. Overall, this volume makes two contributions to the way we think about peacekeeping: first it demonstrates that the theory and practice of peacekeeping is embedded in global politics and second it shows that there an on-going debate about what peacekeeping is for.