ABSTRACT
International state-building has developed as a strategy for conflict resolution as part of the evolution undergone by UN peacekeeping in the 1990s. Whilst the main function of traditional peacekeeping missions was to monitor borders, supervise ceasefires or reestablish buffer zones, post-Cold War peacekeeping mandates became more complex and far-reaching. Complexity is reflected both in the breadth of mandates and range of tasks that such operations set out to perform, and size – including whether there is a civilian presence in addition to the military component. Multidimensional peacekeeping operations indeed include a number of components such as ‘military, civilian police, political, civil affairs, rule of law, human rights, humanitarian, reconstruction, public information and gender units’. 1
