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Introduction

Warner (1995) explains that the UN peacekeeping operations have been placed under increased scrutiny over the past few years. This has come against the introduction of relatively new players in peace keeping efforts such as Germany
and Japan. Additionally, continuous scrutiny has been propagated by heightened religious, ethnic and local conflicts among several nations of the world. Consequently, in an analysis of the basis of legal peacekeeping operations by the United nations, it is essential to acknowledge  that the UN  has failed in some areas and succeeded in others. This means that there must be a revision of the role that this international body is willing to take in dealing with international peace. The paper shall examine specific case studies, outstanding themes and contradictions in both judicial and non judicial opinions of peacekeeping by the UN.

Prevention of Armed conflict

In the UN secretary general’s report (1998) concerning the preventive role of the UN in the African continent a number of legal issues emanate in the need for peacekeeping interventions in this region. First of all, the United Nations is given the mandate to engage in peacekeeping in the process of preventing armed conflicts in certain parts of the world. This is usually seen when the organization mediates agreements between nations with regard to non aggression.

While the latter body acknowledges the need for possession of arms among nations to protect themselves, it may be required to engage in peace keeping when a certain country seems to be operating in a non transparent manner. Additionally, prevention of armed conflicts can be seen through the following peace keeping efforts;

* Joint military training
* Harmonisation of joint arms policies
* Security cooperation agreements
* Registration of arms

An example of how the United Nations has demonstrated one of the latter roles is through the 1997 UN Register of conventional Arms. Here, countries were required to give information about the amount of weapons within their borders in order to enhance transparency. Additionally, the UN has prevented armed conflicts by tracing some of the origins of small arms in order to deal with the problem directly, this is further supported by some confidence building efforts with regard to the purchase of ammunition among member states. In other words, countries have been restricted on the number of ammunitions which they can purchase thus preventing intense effects that may arise within particular armed conflicts. (UN, 1998)