Peace support operations are often divided into “peacekeeping” (lightly armed) and “peace enforcement” (heavily armed), and sometimes into other categories as well. In this section, “peacekeeping” and “peacekeeping operation” are used as blanket terms to cover all impartial, multinational, military-based interventions into areas of conflict.
Australia has had peacekeepers in the field with the United Nations since 1947. In Indonesia in 1947, Australians were part of the very first group of UN military observers anywhere in the world, and were, in fact, the first into the field.