The United Nations was initially created as a security institution that is designed to establish peace and security in the post-world war two world. The most visible and significant conflict management role performed by the United Nations is peacekeeping, which has had fifty-four operations between 1945 and 2000 .
One of the major merits of United Nations peacekeeping is that a nation[s] can increase their international influence through involvement with U.N peacekeeping missions. "Peacekeeping has helped Canada to establish itself as a leading proponent of cooperative approaches to international security peacekeeping, and with it the image of a responsible internationalist state, raises Canada's profile and strengthens our position across a broad range of international diplomatic negotiations" . To demonstrate this, past and present U.N operations will be examined to illustrate how peacekeeping has raised Canada's global position. However, association with U.N peacekeeping does have certain drawbacks, such as embarrassment from various operations. Furthermore, in order to maintain the status that peacekeeping can provide a nation, that nation must make certain reforms to its foreign and defense policies.
Conflict between the Arabs and the Israelis broke out after the United Nations passed a resolution for the division of Palestine. In 1948, Israel publicized its independence, increasing the strife with the Arabs. The United Nations Security Council launched the United Nation Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) to probe any violent confrontations . However, by 1953, there were far too many clashes for the UNTSO to inspect. Due to the increase and the number of battles, Canada was asked to step in and help strengthen the U.N mission. Canadian General E.L.M Burns took command of the UNTSO and immediately began struggling to get the two clashing nations to sign armistice agreements.
Unfortunately, General Burns was never able to establish a reciprocal understanding between the Arabs and the Israelis, stating that "there were disputes about the interpretation of the armistice agreements all the while, both sides violated or failed to observe the agreements" .