UNPROFOR
(United Nations PROtection FORce)

After the demise of the Warsaw Pact, Yugoslavia broke up and erupted into civil war. European efforts failed to end the civil wars and the United Nations was finally forced to intervene.

In February 1992 UNPROFOR was established with a mandate to 'create the conditions of peace and security required for the Negotiation of an overall settlement of the crisis' that was based on traditional interpositionary peacekeeping. However, there was no peace to keep and the Mandate was frequently altered to reflect this.

As the Bosnian crisis continued Muslims, Serbs, and Croats fought for control of Bosnia. The UN Security Council invoked its enforcement powers under the UN Charter and gave UNPROFOR the ability to return fire if fired upon and enforce the UN protected zones. No-fly zones were established, but the UN found it difficult to protect its safe havens and the zones and NATO was brought in to enforce the no-fly zones. Two years of dual NATO-UN military involvement followed and differences arose regarding punitive actions against offensive forces attacking UN protected areas with artillery.

In August 1995 the UN abandoned one of its safe havens to Bosnian Serbs causing tensions to rise. The ensuing massacres of civilians brought no significant military intervention, and the dual-key arrangements were abandoned when NATO began a sustained air and artillery offensive against the Bosnian Serbs (Operation Deliberate Force).