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2: What Is the Evidence from South America?
- Johns Hopkins University Press
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While chapter 1 covered the rationale for democratizing states’ participation in peacekeeping operations, here I provide an empirical evaluation of the same themes, examining how signaling, domestic reform imperatives, and budgetary motivations have affected peacekeeping activities in South America in diverse ways. I trace in depth the participation of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay in peacekeeping missions. In addition, I emphasize various sequences of events by specifying the beginning and end of each country’s peacekeeping contributions . Finally, I offer an assessment of the causal relationship between countries’ commitments to UN peace operations and the democratization trends we see within them. Argentina is the first case study because, of the three countries analyzed, its theoretical motivations for participating in peacekeeping missions were the strongest: it needed to send positive signals about itself to the international community, to take steps to reform its military, and to exploit the financial benefits made possible by peacekeeping missions. I analyze Brazil’s reasons for its participation in UN peace missions, an activity that was largely defined by the need to signal international commitment and prowess. Finally, I focus on Uruguay, which has deployed large numbers of peacekeepers to different regions of the world, primarily for economic reasons. Argentina: From Military Coups to Peacekeeping Of the three countries examined in this chapter, Argentina was the most eager to participate in peacekeeping missions. It wanted to signal its willingness to promote peace on the international stage; to use peace missions in order to promote domestic reforms, particularly within the military; and to cope more 2 What Is the Evidence from South America? What Is the Evidence from South America? 39 effectively with budgetary constraints. Still, it is important to point out that these motivations have not always existed nor been constant. In fact, the nature of Argentina’s involvement in peace operations has evolved and varied over time. Since its redemocratization in 1982–83, three different trajectories or historical sequences shaped the country’s commitment to peacekeeping. First, between 1990 and 1995, Argentina ranked as a major troop-lending country in the UN peacekeeping system. Signaling, domestic reform, and budgetary considerations mattered the most in this first phase. In contrast, between 1995 and 2003, the country’s participation in UN peace missions declined substantially as its economy collapsed. Finally, between 2004 and 2010, the desire to use peacekeeping missions as a way of sending positive international signals became more acute (figure 2.1). Phase I of Argentina’s Peacekeeping Activities, 1990–95 Argentina’s proactive approach to peacekeeping first began in August 1991, when two Argentine frigates with 450 navy crewmembers deployed to the Persian Gulf from the Argentine port of Belgrano. Their aim was to contribute to the UN-sanctioned blockade of Iraq.1 In the aftermath of the Gulf War, Buenos Aires then pledged to send a nine-hundred-man battalion to the UN Figure 2.1. Argentine troops deployed in UN peace operations, 1988–2010 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 0 1000 2000 3000 Troops deployed Year [3.235.154.65] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 16:44 GMT) 40 The Myth of the Democratic Peacekeeper Protection Force in Former Yugoslavia (UNPROFOR). Also during this period, the Argentines made three other significant troop commitments in Cyprus, Iraq-Kuwait, and Haiti. According to data from Ejército Argentino and Consejo Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales (CARI), in less than a decade, Argentina would send over fifteen thousand soldiers to participate in twelve peacekeeping operations worldwide (Ejército Argentino 1997; CARI 1997). In total, about 40% of the country’s commissioned officers gained some kind of peacekeeping experience during this period, making Argentina the most active Latin American peacekeeping contributor and one of the top five UN troop suppliers between 1992 and 1996.2 This trajectory may initially seem insignificant. After all, the country was merely fulfilling its responsibilities as a founding member of the UN. Recall that the country’s naval deployment to the Persian Gulf in 1990 occurred only months after the attempted coup against the democratically elected government of President Carlos Saúl Menem. Paradoxically, the very military institution that had revolted at least three times against the re-emergence of Argentine democracy was now engaged in a mission thousands of miles from Buenos Aires. This was no accident. Argentina’s engagement in UN peacekeeping missions clearly coincided with the government’s efforts to realign the country internationally and to restructure its restive armed forces. In this first phase, Buenos Aires wanted to...