United Nations Peacekeeping Operations and Bangladesh: An Overview

The United Nations peacekeeping evolved following multifaceted nature of conflicts in the world. Both nature and dimension of peacekeeping diversified and varied across different timeframes. In order to reduce multidimensional threats of conflicts, UN so far developed four generations of peacekeeping. UN also changed its mandates and purposes of activities of peacekeeping missions for fulfilling emerging demands of diverse generations. Bangladesh is one of the top troop-contributing countries to the UN. The country has been playing significant contribution in peacekeeping operations since its participation in peacekeeping operations in 1988. Simultaneously, the country also faces some challenges in peacekeeping missions. In fact, the possible transition from the third to the fourth generation of peacekeeping has brought about new challenges for Bangladesh. As the fourth generation of UN peacekeeping would be highly multidimensional in nature, it could be a major issue of concern for Bangladesh.