BABCOCK: THE EFFICACY OF PEACEKEEPING 79 The Efficacy of Peacekeeping 1 Sandy Babcock Director General Operational Research Department of National Defence, Canada Canadian Forces Experimentation Centre National Defence Headquarters Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. e-mail:
[email protected],
[email protected] Sandy Babcock is pursuing his Ph.D. in history at Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. His doctoral thesis relates to the impact of professionalism on the Royal Canadian Air Force, 1945-1964. He recently retired from the Canadian Forces after a 29-year career and began a second career conducting operational research for the Canadian Department of National Defence. His current employment is with the Canadian Forces Experimentation Centre, where he is the acting team leader responsible for the identification and development of future concepts. ABSTRACT This study seeks to assess the efficacy of United Nations peacekeeping missions. Using qualitative analysis to categorize these missions as successful, partially successful or unsuccessful, the location, timing, duration, size, interstate versus intrastate peacekeeping, and peacekeeper density of missions are then examined against the level of success encountered. The results of this study suggest that some of these factors do provide limited indications of the chances for mission success. INTRODUCTION For more than 50 years, United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions have been one of the cornerstones of international efforts to restore or support governance and stability. Since