Peacekeeping is defined by the Department of Defense as "military operations, undertaken with the consent of all major belligerents, that are designed to monitor and facilitate implementation of an existing truce agreement in support of diplomatic efforts to reach a political settlement to a dispute." Multinational Peacekeeping is increasingly being utilized as a tool in support of conflict management across the globe. Between July 1995 and May 2003, there was an average of five new peacekeeping missions mandated annually. Over one-third of these peacekeeping operations were mandated by regional or sub-regional international organizations. The purpose of the A to Z of Multinational Peacekeeping is to present enough information on the major multinational operations to allow readers to cut through any confusion and gain a better understanding of the many military missions fielded by international organizations since 1920. It uses a list of acronyms, a chronology, an introductory essay, photographs, appendixes, a bibliography, several hundred cross-referenced dictionary entries on the peacekeeping bodies, the organizations that established them, important persons involved, countries in which they were deployed and main countries contributing to them to accomplish this goal.