Where do U.N. soldiers come from?

Question

The UN has its own peacekeeping forces. My question is, do they recruit and train from all countries, or do countries send detachments from their own armies to serve the UN? And if so, are there American forces in blue helmets?

Answer 1

The United Nations ask for U.N. member countries to contribute military and police personel for overseas missions.

The missions can be:
Peace-Keeping, (Blue-Berets)
Peace-Enforcement, (Blue-Helmets)
Humanitarian.
Observer.

Each U.N. job is called a "Mission" and is given a specific name, sometimes U.N. Missions can overlap as with U.N.I.F.I.L.(United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon) and U.N.D.O.F. (United Nations Disengagement Observer Force) the U.N.D.O.F were based on the Lebanese-Israeli-Syrian Border as unarmed Observers.

My own experience was with the Irish U.N. troops in U.N.I.F.I.L .

Its easier to send trained Officers & soldiers, although countries are invited to send Officers and senior NCO's to the U.N.T.S.I School at the Curragh Camp in Kildare Ireland to learn about Peace-keeping methods.

http://www.military.ie/overseas/untsi.htm

The Irish Defence Forces are not part of N.A.T.O. but have many years of Peace-Keeping around the world. They started back in Lebanon in 1958,as observers, served in the Congo as Peace-enforcers,
Siani, Cyprus, returned as a major part of U.N.I.F.I.L
1978 - 2000 where over 40 members of the Irish Forces have died in the Service of Peace.

For more details please see:

http://www.military.ie/overseas/missions.htm

Answer 2

Click on Facts and Figures as you scroll down you will find a list of countries supplying manpower.

Answer 3

A good bit of them are from the US.