The peace soldier from the South: From praetorianism to peacekeeping

Participation in United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations (PKO) is thought to have important effects on civilian control of the military among troop-contributing states. This is the case in different places but not in others. Moreover the effects are different in some places. Why? This dissertation examines the relationship between engagement in UN peace missions and civilian control of the armed forces in the Southern Cone of South America. I assess the varying effects of peacekeeping (PK) involvement on four separate indicators of civilian control---the defense sector, bureaucratic control of international security policies, military professionalism, and the civilianization of the soldier. I review past research and identify a policy-relevant and theoretically important intellectual puzzle: while the conventional wisdom and case study evidence concludes that engaging the military in UN peace operations is universally positive for reducing the military's political influence, the body of cross-national research that I conducted finds that PK can have many and varying consequences, which are not always conducive to increasing democratic civilian control. Why?; I use of the comparative method to explain the different effects of PK on civilian control of the military. I argue that different types of military prerogatives, divergent forms of bureaucratic decision-making processes, and dissimilar forms of social interaction in UN PKO explain why engaging the military in international peace missions can have varying outcomes. The project engages in a two-step analysis. It first aims to identify the domestic conditions under which participation of the armed forces in UN peace missions is likely to strengthen democratic civilian control. Second, it explores the mechanisms through, which international participation in PKO exerts its influence on the military and on civilians. For that purpose, I select four cases in the Southern Cone of South America (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay) and test four hypotheses using interviews and qualitative research. The dissertation focuses on two levels of analysis. The first task of this study is to assess the effect of PK participation on state institutions, such as military services and defense ministries. In other words, I explore whether participation in PKO strengthens domestic institutions in a way that is more conducive for civilians to exercise their authority over uniformed leaders. A second task includes the individual level of analysis. Soldiers may reconsider their political attachments by bringing new social constructs into line with their personal experiences through the time they spend in service. (Janowitz 1960, Moskos 1976) PK is meaningful at an individual level if soldiers dilute their military organizational interests through their experience as peacekeepers. This can be consequential for civilian control if the soldier in question becomes more civilianized and/or more professional. The following chapters reveal that PK has had varying and divergent institutional and individual effects in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay.