Between frontline and homefront: The transformative effects of peacekeeping

Much popular and academic literature on peacekeeping examines challenges and complexities facing missions from fulfilling their mandates. It centres on the operational effectiveness of missions, relations between military and civilian components, and how to attract sufficient well-trained and -equipped troops. 

An equally large body of literature seeks to understand why countries choose to contribute personnel in the first place, ranging from gaining international recognition, funding militaries, building an identity for their armies, and responding to pressures/incentives from foreign governments.

This special section takes another perspective, analysing how countries that provide peacekeepers are structurally shaped by but also seek to instrumentalize peacekeeping in both domestic and international domains. Contributors explore the domestic security, political and economic effects on peacekeeping contributors, from multilateral and regional organizations and national governments to individual peacekeeping troops and bureaucrats. As such, it posits that rather than interrogating how international peacekeeping effects the countries that host missions, exploring peacekeeping should also include an assessment of how making contributions produces effects on the countries that send security personnel.

Led by DIIS senior researchers Luke Patey and Peter Albrecht this special section in International Affairs extends from grants provided by the Danish Ministry of Higher Education's Global Innovation Network Programme and the Consultative Research Committee under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, with additional support from the Danida Fellowship Centre.

It brought together researchers from Denmark, Ghana, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Chile, and elsewhere, to explore peacekeeping’s impact on the foreign policy, security, & politics of contributing countries.