Five Paradoxes of Peace Operation, by Richard Gowan (PDF)

1)  Military peacekeeping has grown in scale … yet lost operational impact. 2)  Peacekeeping is cheap …  but it is also still too expensive. 3) All peace operations are political … but not all are guided by credible political strategies and few peacekeepers are good at politics. 4)  Peacekeepers promote democracy and justice … but democracy and justice don’t always promote peace. 5) Emerging non-Western powers play a major role in peacekeeping … but may not want it.