Reconceptualizing peacekeeping: The impact on contributing countries and troops

This article argues that the traditional focus of peacekeeping literature — on field missions, host countries, and the challenges of attracting sufficient and appropriately trained troops — is too narrow. It suggests that more emphasis should be placed not only on the locations where missions deploy, but also on the individuals, countries, and institutions that make up these missions. To ensure this more comprehensive approach, the article has developed the concept of ‘global peacekeeping assemblages,’ an approach that provides a more nuanced perspective on peacekeeping by:

1. Abandoning prior analytical separations: Instead of treating the field mission, host country, and contributing state or organization as isolated entities, this approach views them as interconnected parts of a larger whole.
    
2. Encouraging detailed empirical methodology: By focusing on the interactions and negotiations among a multiplicity of actors, knowledges, technologies, norms, and values, thi article captures the complexity of peacekeeping operations across different locations.
    
3. Treating peacekeeping as flexible social facts: Peacekeeping is seen as the outcome of the co-functioning of diverse actors with various motivations and objectives, highlighting that its origins and effects are multi-faceted and dispersed.

This framework suggests that the experience of peacekeeping is not only about the immediate effects on host countries but also about the long-term impacts on the contributing nations and their troops. By adopting this assemblage approach, policymakers and academics can better understand and address the multifaceted nature of peacekeeping, ensuring more effective and inclusive strategies for global peace and security.