The purpose of this article is to outline developments in UN training programmes in negotiation, and civil military coordination. The article seeks to engage positively with critical assessments of peacekeeping and peacebuilding. It demonstrates that by making military peacekeepers aware of non-violent solutions to potentially violent situations (through negotiation skills for instance), and also of the peacekeeping/peacebuilding nexus (for example through civil–military coordination), there are signs of a deepening understanding of principles of conflict resolution by those who run UN peacekeeping structures.