Since the early 1990s, international security organizations such as the United Nations (UN), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and, more recently, the European Union (EU), have undertaken numerous military operations in order to protect human rights, to prevent civil wars or the collapse of states, to end domestic conflicts or to prevent their re-emergence. Prominent examples include international involvement in Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan. Often these operations were paralleled with or followed by civilian efforts such as the provision of humanitarian aid or socioeconomic and political assistance in order to (re-)establish state structures.