| ID | 181418 |
| Title Proper | Reflection on Labour Hierarchies in Peacekeeping |
| Other Title Information | a Study on the Operational Experiences of Military Peacekeepers |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Podder, Sukanya ; Manzillo, Giuseppe |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | Why do the attitudes of United Nations military peacekeepers towards peacekeeping shift after their deployment from positive to negative ones and how do labour hierarchies influence this shift? Using surveys with military peacekeepers gathered within a professional military education (PME) context, we conducted an exploratory pilot study about individual attitudes towards UN peacekeeping operations (UNPKOs) after deployment. We found that a majority changed their opinion about UNPKOs as an effective tool for peacebuilding from positive to negative. Specifically, we found that 82% of troops from the Global South changed their perceptions from positive to negative after deployment; while 59% of Global North peacekeepers did not change their perceptions. This shift was on account of enduring command and control challenges, problems with analysing intelligence, and, the growing demands of robustness to protect civilians, which increasingly place peacekeepers from the Global South at the risk of armed attacks and under scrutiny for underperformance. Findings urge scholars and policy-makers to address the problem of labour hierarchies in the political economy of peacekeeping as a significant source of misalignment between the perceptions and experiences of troops from the Global South and the growing expectations of performance from them. |
| `In' analytical Note | International Peacekeeping Vol. 28, No.5; Nov 2021: p.701-731 |
| Journal Source | International Peacekeeping Vol: 28 No 5 |
| Key Words | Peacekeeping ; Intelligence ; Armed Groups ; Civilian Protection ; Command and Control |