The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has been involved in active peacekeeping

Peacekeeping

Peacekeeping is an activity that aims to create the conditions for lasting peace. It is distinguished from both peacebuilding and peacemaking....

 missions since 1994, and coordinates with UN Peacekeeping operations and directives.

The Former Yugoslavia

The first NATO peacekeeping mission has its roots on February 28, 1994, when the organization authorized U.S. fighters to fire on Serbian planes violating the no-fly zone over the former Yugoslavia. Previously, NATO had limited itself to solving conflicts within its member states; this operation marked a shift as the alliance worked to keep the peace in regions of Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...

, which was considered to be an "out-of-area deployment." In December 1995, NATO sent an unprecedented 60,000 troops to ensure that all sides would abide by the Dayton accords, which was replaced by a smaller force of 32,000 troops a year later.

Under a UN mandate, a NATO-led force (IFOR

IFOR

The Implementation Force was a NATO-led multinational peacekeeping force in Bosnia and Herzegovina under a one-year mandate from 20 December 1995 to 20 December 1996 under the codename Operation Joint Endeavour. Its task was to implement the military Annexes of The General Framework Agreement for...

) entered Bosnia

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...

 in order to implement The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In a similar manner, a NATO operation (KFOR) continues in the Serbian province of Kosovo

Kosovo

Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...

.

The NATO-led mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina has since been replaced by a European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

 peacekeeping mission, EUFOR.

Current operations

NATO currently has peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

.

NATO former Yugoslavia Operations

• IFOR
  IFOR
  The Implementation Force was a NATO-led multinational peacekeeping force in Bosnia and Herzegovina under a one-year mandate from 20 December 1995 to 20 December 1996 under the codename Operation Joint Endeavour. Its task was to implement the military Annexes of The General Framework Agreement for...
  
  
• KFOR
• Operation Allied Force
  Operation Allied Force
  The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia was NATO's military operation against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The strikes lasted from March 24, 1999 to June 10, 1999...
  
  
• Operation Deliberate Force
• SFOR
  SFOR
  The Stabilisation Force was a NATO-led multinational peacekeeping force in Bosnia and Herzegovina which was tasked with upholding the Dayton Agreement. It replaced the previous force IFOR...
  
  

External links

• Paul F. Diehl, "Problems with NATO's Peace Operations in Afghanistan", ACDIS Swords and Ploughshares 16:2 (summer 2008), Program in Arms Control, Disarmament, and International Security (ACDIS) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.