There are currently 16 United Nations peacekeeping missions in operation around the World, most of which are in Asia and Africa. The first UN peacekeeping mission was the Middle East monitoring mission - UNTSO - which began in 1948 and is still operational to this day. To date there have been a total of 64 different missions, although some have been direct replacements for previous missions in certain locations. Up until the Cold War ended, UN peacekeeping missions generally consisted of military observers and lightly-armed troops, but nowadays the troops are often heavily militarised, and they have reached the 100,000 level for the first time in the United Nations' history. |
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