Turkey and UN peacekeeping missions

Peacekeeping operations were initiated to sustain global peace and security immediately after World War II with the establishment of United Nations. Today there are two common approaches, Westphalian and post-Westphalian, for the prevailing peacekeeping activities around the world. The Republic of Turkey, one of the supporters of a post-Westphalian model of peacekeeping operations, opened the door for peacekeeping operations with the Korean War against the expansion of Communism. Turkey has subsequently participated in a total of 26 peacekeeping operations and observer missions directly under UN command and other international organisations such as NATO and the OSCE since 1950.