The three pillars of peacekeeping operations are: (i) the use of force only for selfdefense or for defense of a mandate granted by the UN Security Council; (ii) impartiality; and (iii) consent of the main parties involved. CHAPTER 2 — THE 21st CENTURY STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENT As suggested in its name, UN peace missions are tools used by the Organization to preserve peace while it is threatened or to restore peace after a conflict. It is never an intervention in a military conflict favoring one side or another. Brazil understands that there are clear limits: peacekeeping missions should not seek to replace belligerent parties. The United Nations should help parties build conditions for peace and should do so in a strictly impartial way, in order to ensure legitimacy and greater political gains. UN peace missions offer parties a political and security environment, as well as the time they need to lay the foundations for an enduring peace. Currently, peacekeeping missions face important challenges. It is fundamental to guarantee the sustainability and success of their actions and to provide the necessary military resources and means for the fulfillment of their mandate. They must incorporate the commitment to sustain efforts, i.e. they must support the creation of political, institutional and socioeconomic bases for an enduring peace. A particularly important challenge is the protection of civilians in situations of conflict, a concept which must be improved to ensure that the use of force does not exceed United Nations Security Council mandates. In September 2011, during her opening speech at the UN General Assembly, President Dilma Rousseff coined the expression “responsibility while protecting”, which essentially refers to the following doctrine for the use of military force under UN aegis: “do not create more instability than that which is to be prevented or limited”. Brazil believes that peacekeeping operations must rely on four elements: security, strengthening of institutions, national reconciliation and development. Balance among these elements is a Brazilian priority in theoretical debates (which result in UN guidelines on the issue) and in practical terms when Brazilian forces are deployed in such missions. The actions undertaken by Brazil in peacekeeping missions have, whenever possible, emphasized the reconstruction of countries based on socially and economically sustainable foundations. Thus Brazil has sought, especially in the case of Haiti, to promote innovative programs for technical cooperation in areas such as food security, agriculture, professional education, health security and infrastructure. Brazil also intends to increase the participation of civilian professionals in these missions, in order to meet the growing demands for qualified personnel in public security, border control, the fight against drug trafficking, voting systems, penal systems and public administration among others. 36 DEFENSE WHITE PAPER