United Nations Peacekeeping Operations (UNPKOs), established on the tripartite principles of party consent, impartiality, and force restriction to self-defense consent, have undergone a marked doctrinal evolution in force application since 1948. Through textual analysis of 71 UNPKO mandates and process-tracing of historical policy shifts, this study identifies three phases of expansion: from strict self-defense (1948–1980s), to civilian protection mandates (1990s), and ultimately to the contemporary “necessary force” doctrine permitting offensive actions to achieve mission objectives. Despite documented risks—including threats to peacekeeper safety, erosion of neutrality, civilian casualties, and North-South divisions within the UN—the trajectory toward force liberalization persists. To explain this paradox, the essay innovatively adapts Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) through two critical modifications. First, the conventional “political stream” is reconceptualized as an “environmental stream”, incorporating legal-institutional dynamics and operational realities, which captures the UN’s unique multilateral decision-making ecosystem. Second, departing from MSF’s assumption of stream independence, the revised framework posits continuous interaction among problem, policy, and environmental streams. The study concludes that three interdependent factors drive the continuous expansion of force application in UN peacekeeping operations: the evolving multiplicity of missions (problem stream), the group preserving psychology of the UN Security Council (policy stream), and the shifting operational-legal environment (environmental stream).

Keywords: United Nations, Use of Force, Peacekeeping

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Conflicts of Interest:

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to report regarding the present study.

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Why Have United Nations Peacekeeping Operations Expanded Their Use of Force? A Study From 1948 Until the Present Time