Domestic Security Implications of UN Peacekeeping – D-SIP

Project summary

Participation of developing countries in institutions of global governance is key to the promotion of peace, security and stability. This project investigates links between UN peacekeeping contributions, domestic security provision and drivers of stability in Ghana. By generating knowledge on how participation in international peacekeeping shapes the legitimacy and effectiveness of security institutions and practices in troop contributing countries, it offers insight into dynamics of peace- and state building. The project tests the hypotheses that global peacekeeping participation: a) results in the assembling of new practices, norms and discourses that shape the organization and provision of domestic security in public and private domains, b) strengthens the legitimacy and effectiveness of domestic security organization and provision, and c) promotes national security interests and drivers of regional stability. To explore the correlation between peacekeeping participation and domestic security, the notion of ‘peacekeeping assemblages’ is introduced. This notion draws attention to how security is structured by local-global and private-public relations, thus calling for a reassessment of more state oriented approaches to security provision and peacekeeping. By showing how the global is productive of the local, the project contributes to scholarly debates on entanglements of institutions, actors, practices, norms and discourses, and the production of novel forms of security governance. The project thus fills a significant empirical and theoretical knowledge gap on the side effects of peacekeeping on troop contributing countries in the global South. Furthermore, it contributes to international policy-making on the promotion of legitimate security institutions, stabilization and conflict prevention through participation in global governance. The project is implemented by a consortium of Danish and Ghanaian research institutions, and will strengthen research capacity and international competitiveness in the areas of security and peacebuilding, and enhance South-South and North-South research partnerships.

Outputs

Midterm report:

While COVID-19 slowed down progress of the project during 2020, pace picked up again during 2021. Fieldwork was carried out, and second drafts of articles for a special issue of Contemporary Journal of African Studies (CJAS), a University of Ghana-based journal, focusing on the relationship between policing and peacekeeping were finalized. Several blog posts, newspaper articles, reports and policy briefs have been produced, while policy briefs exploring the link between the military's engagement in internal operations and international peacekeeping are under way. Many other publications are at different stages of development. All key researchers are contributing to the special issue, but apart from that joint research activities have proven difficult during the pandemic, not leas because it has been difficutl to travel to the region, especially during 2020. In August 2021 we will plan the next combined meeting and writing retreat to work on data collected during 2021. The three PhD students of D-SIP have passed their mandatory course work at University of Ghana and are starting their fieldwork before they come to Copenhagen for three months stay from August 2021, where they will spend most of the time writing. Apart from the methodology workshops we already organized (in Accra in 2019 and online in 2021), we are carrying out a PhD course and masterclass for them together with the Diaspora Humanitarianism in Complex Crises (D-Hum) program.