Latin American involvement in international peacekeeping dates back to the start of United Nations peacekeeping efforts with the Organization's founding in the 1940s but has seen a sharp acceleration in recent years. The military establishments of the larger nations of Latin America (with the notable exception of Mexico) have consistently supported most of the major peacekeeping missions of the United Nations. In some cases (Argentina, Chile), this has been a long-term historic commitment of a few (3-6) observers in missions that have been supported from the late 1940s to date. In other cases the support has taken the form of major units (at least a battalion in the range of 500-700 personnel), generally for periods of a year. This Latin American support effort has accelerated in the past few years as the UN has taken a more activist and interventionist stance in the peacekeeping field (with some key individuals calling for the UN to be prepared to do peace-enforcement as well as peace-keeping). At least one army (Argentina's) now formally includes such peacekeeping support as one of its basic missions, and others have assumed de facto peacekeeping roles with an extended commitment into the future. Since it is reasonable to assume that such calls for troop contributions for UN peacekeeping missions will continue and even increase in the future, this role will probably be of growing significance. Historical precedents Over the years the Latin American support of UN peacekeeping and peace-observing missions has ranked after the principal troop contributors (the Scandinavian countries, Ireland, New Zealand, India and Canada), and well above that of most of the UN membership. In UNEF I (Egypt-Israel, 1956-1967) Brazil provided a battalion for almost ten years (for a total participation of some 5,000 man-years), and Colombia a similar unit for a year; a Brazilian general commanded UNEF twice in this period. After the 1973 Middle East War both Panama and Peru provided a battalion to UNEF II for a year. A Peruvian officer also commanded the observer unit in the Golan Heights in this period. Colombia also provided a battalion and a naval ship during the UN's only previous experience with peace-enforcement, the Korean War, while Argentina sent two warships on blockade duty during the first Gulf War. Colombia and Uruguay have also provided significant troop units (a battalion of infantry and an engineer unit, respectively), to the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) which has