The United Nations Charter stipulates that to assist in maintaining peace and security around the world, all Member States of the UN should make available to the Security Council necessary armed forces and facilities (PSS 2006, par. 1). Since 1948, more than 130 nations have contributed military and police personnel to peace operations (Ibid.). However, more than 60 member states have not contributed troops to UN peace operations. What is happening to the countries which do not provide troops? Why is it that the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) does not receive troop contributions from them? What are the reasons behind this phenomenon? Hence, this research project has been titled: “Fitting on the Blue Helmet.”
To date, no scholarly research about non-contributor countries (NCCs) has been conducted. Thus, many generalizations have emerged, such as: “they [the NCCs] do not have troops, so they cannot contribute”, “they have strong internal armed conflicts, so they cannot contribute”, and many others, which have provided partial explanations. Nevertheless, peacekeeping policy requires constant research. As a result, a change of paradigm that does not ignore all the elements of the Politics of Peacekeeping is required. This research explains the missing element.
For the analysis of each country and group profile, ten variables that affect the willingness to send troops were obtained:
1) UN/UN peacekeeping policy reform
2) Perception of peacekeeping
3) Domestic political environment
4) Domestic economic environment
5) Military affairs
6) Foreign policy
7) Climate changes
8) Independent negotiations taken by DPKO to seek troops
9) Independent negotiations taken by contributor countries to engage non-contributor countries
10) Meetings organized by other international organizations to engage in dialogue about Peacekeeping
Thus, every DPKO policy aiming to encourage NCCs to contribute troops, must take into consideration how those variables interact, and plan the best strategy to affect the right variables to produce to desired outcome.
Therefore, if DPKO is currently under negotiations with NCCs, or has identified a NCC which potentially could contribute troops, this research will increase the understanding of the country and the patterns shown by members of the group it belongs to. This knowledge, combined with the DPKO strategies for requesting troops, increases the chance of obtaining troops.
Will the Brahimi Report Recommendations encourage NCCs to contribute troops? DPKO should also develop specific strategies targeting the NCCs’ causes for not contributing. The Brahimi Report Recommendations, by itself, will not have a significant impact on the ten variables affecting the wiliness to send troops, neither on the patterns of each of the groups. Hence, the ongoing efforts of the Brahimi Report should be complemented.
DPKO will also focus on strengthening ties with countries with experience in peace operations, and with strong military and diplomatic capabilities, in order to identity contributor countries to act as mentors of NCCs. Taking into consideration regional politics and the domestic political environment of each NCCs. DPKO is aware that not having defense forces is not an obstacle for not contributing. Thus, through the creation of partnerships with contributor countries, to hire citizens of NCCs without defense forces as Blue Helmets, will encourage the NCCs without defense forces to contribute.
There are two groups of NCCs with difficult conditions to participate: NCCs whose participation will be controversial and NCCs with internal armed conflicts. The most difficult cases are those whose participation will be controversial. In the case of the countries with internal conflicts, it is possible in the future that they could contribute. Because there are special cases showing that participating in peacekeeping operations can be a strategy for conflict resolution and reconciliation.
Other countries puzzle the international peace operations community because they have all the elements to participate, but no political will. Others have a domestic political environment that does not allow them to participate. Still others have extraordinary conditions on their political and economic structure that have developed a unique approach to peacekeeping operations.
As a result, the non-contributor countries have been categorized on seven groups based on characteristics such as having or not having defense forces. Some of the groups have NCCs which are special cases, which have sought for opportunities to contribute troops. The groups are identified below:
Group One: Countries without armies: Andorra, Costa Rica, Dominica, Grenada, Liechtenstein, Marshall Islands, Monaco, Nauru, Panama, Saint Lucia, San Marino, Saint Vincent, and Tuvalu. The special cases are: Kiribati, Micronesia and Palau.
Group Two: Countries with internal major conflicts: Afghanistan, Somalia, Eritrea, Haiti, Iraq, Liberia, Georgia, East Timor, Solomon Islands, and Democratic Republic of Congo. The special cases are: Angola and Burundi.
Group Three: Countries whose participation would be controversial: Israel, Syria, North Korea, Myanmar, Cuba and Libya.
Group Four: Countries with large militaries and economic development whose lack of participation puzzles the international peace operations community: Mexico. The special case is: Viet-Nam.
Group Five: Countries participating in non-UN peacekeeping operations: Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Latvia, and Macedonia. The special cases are: Armenia, Nicaragua and Tonga.
Group Six: Small countries with small defense forces: Bahrain, Bhutan, Cape Verde, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Laos, Lesotho, Mauritania, Oman, Qatar, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Sao Tomes, Seychelles, Swaziland, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The special cases are: Belarus and Guyana.
Group Seven: Countries with unique characteristics: Iceland, Maldives and Malta.
In conclusion, this research explains why some countries do not contribute troops to UN missions, while others do. Through a data collection process specially developed for this purpose, it focuses on the analyses of each of the non-contributor country’s set of variables (motivations for not contributing) and their correlations that determine the level of participation in UN missions. This research provides non-contributor country profiles on UN peacekeeping. The profiles are organized in seven groups depending on specific characteristics such as having defense forces and participating in non-UN peace operations. It also provides recommendations on how, when, and/or what type of support each of the non-contributor countries can and/or is willing to contribute to UN missions, in order to complement the efforts to achieve the Brahimi Report’s recommendations.
