How do international organizations contribute to conflict resolution?

• A. By enforcing unilateral sanctions against aggressors.
• B. By mediating disputes, providing peacekeeping forces, and facilitating negotiations.
• C. By replacing domestic governments with international administrators.
• D. By funding only humanitarian aid and avoiding political engagement.

Answer: (B)

The key idea is that international organizations resolve conflicts by combining diplomacy, security, and structured negotiation to create a path to durable peace. Mediating disputes helps the conflicting parties communicate their underlying grievances, identify common interests, and design terms they can accept. Peacekeeping forces, deployed with international legitimacy and appropriate mandates, reduce violence, protect civilians, and create the safe environment necessary for talks to proceed and for any agreed arrangements to be implemented. Facilitating negotiations involves bringing all sides to the table, providing neutral oversight, and helping draft ceasefires, political agreements, and governance arrangements that can be monitored and verified.

Other options fall short because unilateral sanctions, while a tool used in international policy, do not by themselves provide the negotiation space or the security guarantees that peace talks require. Replacing domestic governments with international administrators is not a typical or legitimate approach in most conflicts and lacks broad support. Funding humanitarian aid without political engagement ignores the political dimensions that drive conflict and stall resolution.