@Blanca: updating pre-emptive compounds --- Excellent question! I would say that like any other words, notion, concepts, these constructs used in the United Nations environment are having a life of their own; they are involving, indeed.

The "updates" may come from the member states, but not always. As the UN concepts are used universally, inputs for change may come from other actors (academia, civil society).

For example the most authoritative definition of "Sustainable development" originates in the report "Our common future" (Brundtland Report, 1987) but it was a result of debates that had started in 1972, to connect the imperatives of the economic development with those of environmental protection:

"the development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

That definition was indeed a game changer, but is was quite general. At present, when we say 'sustainable development' we refer mainly to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, where sustainable development is described in a more complex way.

Another UN concept, "peacekeeping operations", was new in the sense that the UN Charter did not mention such a possible way to act for the maintenance of peace and security. That concept, too, had to evolve.

The initial concept became the "traditional" peacekeeping, while the documents and the practice led to "robust", "multifunctional", "multidimensional" (etc.) peacekeeping.

Source author: Petru Dumitriu PetruD@diplomacy.edu