Footprints, motives, perceptions and new directions, Tracing experiences of troop Contributors and contributing societies in UN peacekeeping

Annual Conference of the Working Group Historical Peace and Conflict Research/ (Arbeitskreis Historische Friedens- und Konfliktforschung e.V.)

Organized by
Prof. Dr. Manuel Fröhlich, Trier
Prof. Dr. Christian Jansen, Trier
PD Dr. Jan Erik Schulte, Hadamar/Bochum

Funded by the
German Foundation for Peace Research

Concept Note

The connection of historical approaches with perspectives from political Science provides a useful framework to analyze the development of UN peacekeeping. This conference focuses on troop contributing countries and their societies in the period of the Cold War and beyond.

The conference is centered around the synchronic and diachronic comparison of different troop contributing countries, their societies, histories, military discourses and self-perceptions. This approach includes views not only from troop contributing but also troop hosting countries and societies.

Based on first studies in this field, the conference identifies a desideratum of research which it wants to address by emphasizing the potential of historical perspective, combining it with existing approaches and findings from political science as well as focusing on the context, conditions and circumstances under which states and societies contribute soldiers and police forces to UN peacekeeping missions.

The central research question, which will be dealt with from comparative, transnational and international perspectives, can be summarized as follows: “Why do states and societies contribute troops to UN peacekeeping missions, how have the underlying arguments, motives and perceptions for troop contribution changed over time and how do the missions influence the contributing states and societies?”

More Information in the PDF-File.