The Peace-keeping Operations Of The European Union

The peace-keeping operations of the European Union(EUPKO)are a basic form of the European Union's foreign activities under the framework of its security and defense policies,whose main functions are implementing the tasks of humanitarian aid in international conflicts,maintaining peace and resolving crisis.The basic framework of the EUPKO was not proposed by the European Union at the beginning.Rather,it came into being in the Petersburg Declaration published in June,1992 by the Western European Union which put forward “the Petersburg Task”,for the purpose of dealing with the post-Cold War conflicts in Europe,as the rudiment of the EUPKO.In the governmental meetings from 1996 to 1997,the European Union decided to transfer the defense function of the Western European Union into the framework of the European Union,including the function of implementing peace-keeping operations.Afterwards,the framework of the EUPKO was upgraded in the European Constitution,highlighting the determinations of the European Union to prevent conflicts and resolving crisis.With the advancement of the integration of the EU defense,in the Lisbon Treaty of Dec.18 t h,2007,the proposition o f the Petersburg Expansion Task expanded the function of the EUPKO,mainly in the aspect of dealing with non-security threats.In the research of the EUPKO,it is not difficult to find that although the treaty is complete,there are many problems in the levels of decision making and implementation in actual implementation.This paper surveys the EUPKO from the perspectives of international peace-keeping and EU defense integration,analyses the EU peace-keeping practices,concludes its characteristics and faults,and makes prospects for its further development.The framework of this paper is as follows.Chapter One surveys related theories,legal basis and mechanisms for decision making and implementation related with the EUPKO from the perspective of rationa le analysis.Section One defines the EUPKO from the analysis of two related concepts of the EU crisis management and the UN peace-keeping operations;Section Two surveys its legal basis in order to prove the source of the legitimacy of the EUPKO;Section Three analyses the mechanisms of decision making and implementation,laying basis for its challenges and development prospects.C hapter Two enumerates and analyses seven peace-keeping operations conducted by the EU in Europe,Africa and Asia.O nly by analyzing the actual implementations of the peace-keeping operations,can the author prove its effects and influences to international peace-keeping.C hapter Three mainly concludes the characteristics of the EUPKO and its influences to the international peace-keeping system,so as to evaluate the effects of the EUPKO.Chapter Four discusses the challenges faced with the EUPKO and concludes its faults.What's more,this Chapter analyses the development prospects of the EUPKO and makes prospects for later peace-keeping operations.