Peace

Peace Operations Training Institute

®

PRINCIPLES AND GUIDELINES FOR UN PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS
SerieS editor
Harvey J. Langholtz, Ph.D.

© 2010 Peace Operations Training Institute

PRINCIPLES AND GUIDELINES FOR UN PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS
SerieS editor
Harvey J. Langholtz, Ph.D.

AcknowledgementS DevelopeD in Consultation with
Peacekeeping Best Practices Section Policy,Evaluation and Training Division United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations
anD

General Robert Gordon Co-drafter of the Original Publication

Peace Operations Training Institute

© 2010 Peace Operations Training Institute Peace Operations Training Institute 1309 Jamestown Road, Suite 202 Williamsburg, VA 23185 USA www.peaceopstraining.org First edition: October 2010 Cover: UN Photo#200148 by Christopher Herwig Note: The content of the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations: Principles and Guidelines is reproduced with permission from the Peacekeeping Best Practices Section of the Division of Policy, Evaluation and Training in the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations. The material contained herein does not necessarily reflect the views of the Peace OperationsTraining Institute, the Course Author(s), or any United Nations organs or affiliated organizations. Although every effort has been made to verify the contents of this course, the Peace Operations Training Institute and the Course Author(s) disclaim any and all responsibility for facts and opinions contained in the text, which have been assimilated largely from open media and other independentsources. This course was written to be a pedagogical and teaching document, consistent with existing UN policy and doctrine, but this course does not establish or promulgate doctrine. Only officially vetted and approved UN documents may establish or promulgate UN policy or doctrine. Information with diametrically opposing views is sometimes provided on given topics, in order to stimulate scholarlyinterest, and is in keeping with the norms of pure and free academic pursuit.

A NOTE FROM THE SERIES EDITOR
Dear Student, Welcome to the course Principles and Guidelines for United Nations Peacekeeping Operations. This course has been developed in consultation with the Peacekeeping Best Practices Section of the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations’ Policy, Evaluation and TrainingDivision, and the Peace Operations Training Institute. This course is based on the internal DPKO/DFS publication entitled United Nations Peacekeeping Operations: Principles and Guidelines, which was co-drafted for DPKO by General Robert Gordon and promulgated in March 2008 under the signature of Mr. Jean-Marie Guéhenno, then UnderSecretary-General for Peacekeeping. This course replaces an earlierInstitute course entitled Principles for the Conduct of Peace Support Operations. Peacekeeping is both a complex undertaking and an evolving concept. United Nations Peacekeeping Operations: Principles and Guidelines – which came to be more widely known under its informal name Capstone Doctrine – was, by its own assertion, written “to define the nature, scope and core business of contemporary UnitedNations peacekeeping operations”. The document certainly lives up to that expectation. The original United Nations Peacekeeping Operations: Principles and Guidelines is a comprehensive document that defines and promulgates available peacekeeping doctrine, definitions, procedures, and policy. In ten chapters, it introduces the concept and evolution of UN Peacekeeping, explains the decision processthat precedes the deployment of a peacekeeping operation, and then the planning process to implement that decision. It discusses the art of successful mandate implementation. It discusses the management of peacekeeping operations, how operations are supported and sustained, and how they are concluded at their termination. This course is designed as a teaching document, and it is the purpose of...