The UN has deployed more than 35 peacekeeping forces and observer missions since 1945 in order to reduce or prevent conflicts from breaking out and/or continuing. In order for it to succeed, and to reflect the changing needs of the community of nations, peace-keeping has to be continually re-invented. The task of peace-keeping is subject to an essential constraint: for peace-keeping to succeed, the parties to a conflict must have the necessary political will to adhere to a peaceful resolution of the conflict, such as ceasefires. Under the concept of peace-enforcing, ceasefires would be kept, wether all parties were in agreement or not, by the presence of armed and determined forces of blue helmets.
The stated objectives of the current Secretary-General of the UN were that the UN would move from peace-keeping to peace-enforcing. In Bosnia and Somalia, the UN Peacekeepers did not fulfill this vision, nor was peacekeeping effective. Future peacekeeping and peace-enforcing missions will be undertaken with the hard learned but invaluable experiences of the above conflicts.