Essay from the year 2005 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Peace and Conflict Studies, Security, grade: 1,7, University of Cape Town (University of Cape Town), course: Vorlesung, language: English, abstract: Ever since the Second World War international peace and security have been at the top of the agenda of the international community. Especially the peacekeeping operations of the United Nations (UN) are an important component of today's international peace situation. What exactly is peacekeeping and how does it work? The efforts of the UN to end war, their successes or failures have increasingly become subject of discussions by scholars and politicians over the last years. This paper focuses on the concept of peacekeeping and how it is put into practice by the UN. It provides a brief overview of the different concepts that peace studies offer in terms of ending conflicts. Furthermore the concept of peacekeeping and its developement within the UN is elaborated exemplifying the implementation of UN peacekeeping efforts in Mozambique.