Canada and peace operations

Over the past 50 years, Canada's role in complex, integrated peace operations has evolved to meet new international challenges. Our steady activity in United Nations peace missions increasingly has expanded into regional or coalition missions mandated by the UN. Now, we support and participate in peace operations led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union (EU) and the African Union (AU).

Canada's part in such peace operations helps bring security, stability and support to highly volatile situations, and helps to lay the ground for reconstruction and development. 'Peace operations' is a simple label for a huge range of connected military, diplomatic and humanitarian tasks, as diverse as reforming justice and security systems, disarming and demobilizing troops, reintegrating them into peaceful pursuits, and supporting humanitarian assistance.

Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT) supports the Human Security Program. This program's policy development and advocacy work enhances international understanding of, and the ability to manage, integrated, multidisciplinary peace operations. For example, it has funded the Francophone Research Network on Peace Operations at the University of Montréal's Centre d'etudes et de recherches internationales (CÉRIUM) (in French only) to support research and dialogue about peace operations world wide. The network is a global platform and archive for Francophone peace practitioners, teachers, researchers, students, and journalists.

Learn more about the changing face of peace operations