The Dhaka University Studies, Part-F Vol. XIX (2): 35-64, December 2008 POST-COLD WAR UN PEACEKEEPING: A REVIEW OF LEGAL ASPECTS Mohammad Nazmuzzaman Bhuian* Muhammad Mahbubur Rahman** 1. Introduction UN Peacekeeping has become an increasingly prominent tool used by the international community to promote conflict management and resolution.' Its importance and relevance as a pragmatic tool to deal with conflicts worldwide cannot be over-emphasized as the United Nations is under constant pressure to respond to conflicts across the globe. Changing responses of the United Nations to address these constant pressures are, day by day, adding new dimensions to the concept of peacekeeping. In many cases, particularly after the end of Cold War, two fundamentally different concepts - peacekeeping and peace enforcing - are being blended in field operations. Consequently, many legal issues are entering the forefront of public debate. In the context of such background, the overall objective of the present paper is to identify the legal aspects concerning UN peacekeeping, to assess the prevailing interpretations and doctrines supporting or rebutting the hypotheses associated with these legal aspects, and to look at the post-Cold War developments of peacekeeping and also to examine the legal issues arising out of such developments. 2. The Term ‘Peacekeeping’ in the UN Context: Misnomer or Open to Frequent Re-definition? “Peacekeeping” is a broad, generic, and often imprecise term to describe many activities that the United Nations and other international organizations * Assistant Professor, Department of Law, University of Dhaka. ** Lecturer, Department of Law, University of Dhaka. 1 Greig, J. M. and Diehl, P. F. “The Peacekeeping - Peacemaking Dilemma” International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 49, No. 4, 2005, p. 621.