This is a pre-print provided by the author.
This chapter explains the connections between developing and maintaining good relationships and effective peacekeeping. Research with frontline peacekeepers suggests that good relationships with people across social sectors are central to effective peacekeeping. Peacekeeping takes place within a field of relationships. It is through relationships that peacekeeping deters violence, protects people, and supports local problem‐solving. Though peacekeeping relationships are at times coercive, peace develops and is sustained through engaged relationships characterized by trust, cooperation, and acceptance. While military peacekeeping relationships include the threat and use of weapons, which pose challenges to cooperative relationships, unarmed civilian peacekeeping is effective nonviolently.