On any given day, about 8,000 men and women of the Canadian Forces are getting ready for, operating in or returning home from overseas missions. For more than half a century, most of these missions can be described as peacekeeping, not warring, and military historian J. L. Granatstein has said Canadians' have a "proprietary" attitude toward peacekeeping. Canada's only Nobel Peace Prize went to then external affairs minister Lester Pearson in 1957 for his efforts to organize a United Nations emergency force to end the conflict when Britain, France and Israel invaded Egypt's Suez Canal zone in 1956. The story continues to evolve in the Balkans, the Middle East and the Caribbean.
- In the campaign against international terrorism, Canadian Forces have been operating on the uncertain boundary between combat and peacekeeping, with ships stationed in the Persian Gulf region. Farther east, troops have come under fire patrolling in Afghanistan, while rebuilding schools and engaging in humanitarian assistance.
- After fierce fighting in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the 1990s, Canadians stayed on as part of the NATO stabilization force. This mission combines elements of peacekeeping and public welfare in an area that has suffered severe ethnic conflict.
- Canada's smallest contingent is in Cyprus, where one officer serves as part of a commitment to peace between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, a mission that began in 1964 when Canada was instrumental in creating the UN's peacekeeping force there.
- In the western hemisphere, Canada has made many efforts to help establish stability in Haiti, where political unrest, poverty and environmental degradation have weakened successive governments.
- There's even a peacekeeper's home page, created by Canadian peacekeeping veteran MCpl Frank Misztal and dedicated to his comrades.
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