The Past, Present, and Uncertain Future of Collective Conflict Management: Peacekeeping and Beyond

Abstract

Many scholars contend that United Nations peacekeeping has entered a period of transition, but there is little consensus about the nature of this transition or where it may lead. This article seeks to place these debates into a broader theoretical and historical context. Peacekeeping, I argue, is but the latest instantiation of ‘collective conflict management’ (CCM), which has taken many different forms in the past and likely will again in the future. In particular, this article seeks to explain the international systemic conditions that give rise to, and transform, CCM over time.