"It's every Nepalese policeman or soldier's dream to serve with a U.N. peacekeeping mission. There's so much competition but also rampant favouritism and nepotism," says Nepalese policeman Sushil Kumar Khanal. His country is one of the top five contributors of personnel to U.N. peacekeeping missions, according to the BBC's five-part series on peacekeeping.
It's not the only South Asian country to be at the top of the list when it comes to serving under the U.N. flag. Together, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Nepal make up 40 per cent of police, troops and staff on the ground.
One of the attractions is the pay and, in some cases, relatively good living conditions.
"(Without serving in a peacekeeping mission in Haiti), I don't think my savings from my service at home would have helped that much - whatever we make (in Nepal) is hardly enough to survive," Khanal is quoted as saying.
In Haiti, he and his colleagues could relax in swimming pools or nearby beaches after their eight-hour shift or on their days off. And back home, Khanal built a house and sent his children to good schools with the help of the $85-a-day salary he earned in Haiti.
The U.N. pays governments $1,028 (£513) a month for each peacekeeper - more for specialists - plus extras for equipment and personal weaponry. This amount is unlikely to be an attractive salary for policemen and soldiers from richer countries.
But it's not just about the money. Peacekeeping is certainly a "much-desired assignment" in Bangladesh just like in Nepal, but it's also important for the country's image abroad, according to Fazle Elahi Akbar, a former general in the Bangladeshi army, cited by the BBC.
Some missions are known as an easy option, such as the so-called "Five-Star Mission" in Cyprus. The operation is considered relatively safe and carried out on an island full of tourists.
It's a different story in places such as Haiti and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where U.N. troops went as far as engaging in battles in order to enforce peace - a significant departure from the 1990s passive style of peacekeeping.
A battle between the U.N. and armed gangs in Haiti's Port-au-Prince slum of Cite Soleil earlier this year, resulted in some civilian casualties. In DRC, Maj Gen Patrick Cammaert took over the mission in early 2005 and set about enforcing the principle that "U.N. forces are impartial and not neutral". U.N. forces ended up fighting militias in the eastern part of the country.
But how are peacekeeping missions formed in the first place?
A request for a mission is put before the U.N. Security Council, which votes on whether it agrees in principle to the mission. This is the first resolution. If the vote goes through - and isn't vetoed by one of the five permanent Council members - then the U.N. secretary-general dispatches an assessment mission. The resulting detailed plan and rough budget is put before the Council for a second vote. A 'yes' vote to this second resolution
(called a mandate) formally authorises the mission. The BBC's Patrick Jackson explains the lengthy process.
Only after the mandate has been approved can the U.N. Secretariat contact countries who may be contributing troops and equipment to the mission, according to Jean-Marie Guehenno, head of UN peacekeeping operations, in a debate with John Bolton, former U.S. envoy to the United Nations.
But even once this lengthy process is over, there's a lot more to do. Housing needs to be found or built, finances sorted out, people recruited and so on. Which is why it may take six months to deploy the 3,000 peacekeepers that Sudan has agreed to accept for Darfur.
