The purpose of this symposium was to identify the specific issues relevant to peace operations, to stimulate discussion and to provide focus for future initiatives.

According to the United Nations Charter, peace operations are authorized under Chapter VI where an agreement for peace among the warring factions exists, Chapter VII which authorizes a response to enforce peace where no agreement exists or is ineffective, and Chapter VIII that permits responses by regional organizations and alliances for either peace keeping or peace enforcement. While the United Nations Charter was ratified in XXXX, it has been primarily in the past two decades that member nations have experienced an explosion in conflicts resulting in interventions.

As the frequency of operations for interstate and intrastate conflicts authorized by the General Assembly of the United Nations has increased, the need for member nations to contribute troops to participate in these interventions has risen also. The issues attendant to this shift are numerous and diverse across the broad spectrum of contributing and potentially contributing nations. As the member nations are unlikely to support a standing peacekeeping military force in the near future, the participation of the member states in building coalition forces fit for peacekeeping operations becomes more critical.

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