Rwanda has been the center of much international attention since the war and genocide of 1994. Rwanda is an active member of the UN, having presided over the Security Council during part of 1995. The UN assistance mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR), a UN Chapter Six peacekeeping operation, involved personnel from more than a dozen countries. Most of the UN development and humanitarian agencies have had a large presence in Rwanda.

In 2004, Rwanda deployed 392 peacekeepers in support of the UN Mission to the Sudan. In 2005, Rwanda Defense Forces (RDF) deployed 1,898 soldiers in support of the AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS).

At the height of the emergency, more than 200 nongovernmental organizations were carrying out humanitarian operations. Several west European and African nations, Canada, China, Egypt, Libya, Russia, the Vatican, and the European Union maintain diplomatic missions in Kigali. In 1998, Rwanda, along with Uganda, invaded the Democratic Republic of the Congo (D.R.C.) to back Congolese rebels trying to overthrow then-President Laurent Kabila. Rwandan troops pulled out of the D.R.C. in October 2002, however, in accordance with the Lusaka cease-fire agreement.