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Amanda Murdie, Progress by Peacekeeping? Civil-Military Relations and Involvement in UN Peacekeeping, International Studies Review, Volume 16, Issue 4, December 2014, Pages 681–683, https://doi.org/10.1111/misr.12183
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Could putting on a “blue helmet” help the troops back home? Does involvement in UN peacekeeping missions have an influence on civil-military relations? Although conventional wisdom indicates that involvement in peacekeeping operations could help democratizing countries with domestic reforms and military socialization, Arturo C. Sotomayor's path-breaking book shows that the specific tasks of the mission and preexisting domestic conditions may limit any overall positive effect that peacekeeping could have on a troop-supplying country. Focusing on Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay in the 1990s and 2000s, Sotomayor offers many insights that are of value to those interested in civil-military relations, democratization, peacekeeping, and the potential influence of international factors on domestic politics writ large (Gourevitch 1978).
Before examining the divergent effects that involvement in UN peacekeeping brings, Sotomayor starts his analysis with a theoretically rich look at potential reasons why a democratizing country would want to send troops on UN peacekeeping missions. Sotomayor's focus centers on three factors that drive participation: (i) political signaling, (ii) using the UN framework as an “accelerator” for necessary military reforms, and (iii) monetary incentives (p. 30). Sending troops can signal that a state has a new foreign policy outlook and is able to take on an expanded role in regional and global leadership. It can also be a way for new leaders to “lock in” (Moravcsik 2000:217) or “tie their hands” (Mansfield and Pevehouse 2006:140) to reforms in the military's outlook and training practices. And, in times of economic insecurity, involvement in some UN peacekeeping operations can provide funds for salaries and a means to offset equipment purchases. Sotomayor then examines how each of these factors played out in the decisions of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay to provide varying numbers of UN peacekeepers at different time points in the post-Cold War period.
