19 October 2015
http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/oped/rise-of-the-indian-peacekeepers.html
Recently, peacekeeping calculus for India has undergone changes due to the rise of Chinese interest in peacekeeping missions. But mere acknowledgement of the issue is not enough. India has to systematically adopt a strategy
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s renewed commitment to the United Nations peacekeeping operation at the recently concluded leaders’ summit on peacekeeping does not come as a surprise. Given India’s peacekeeping track record since 1950, it is obvious that India will continue to support peacekeeping operations.
In addition, India views its commitment to the UN Charter and the goal of maintaining international peace and security as a central guiding factor for this engagement. Thus, it continues to offer support to peacekeeping in spite of growing difficulties in doing so.
Mr Modi’s six-point pledge, which includes providing additional troops, police units, critical enablers and technical personnel, along with training the peacekeepers, reiterates India’s faith in the philosophy and practice of peacekeeping.
Traditionally, the rationale for Indian participation in UNPK fluctuated around five main incentives — political, economic, security, institutional and normative. At any given time, it was a blend of these factors that persuaded India to participate in peacekeeping operations.
Additional factors which justified the involvement, include the legacy of British rule, geopolitics of the sub-continent and subsequently path dependency. While no particular hierarchy of rationales could be identified, idealists claimed commitment to the UN Charter and international peace and security to be the main imperative for India’s role in peacekeeping, while realists stated that political and security imperatives and gains over-rode all other factors responsible for India’s participation.
More recently, the peacekeeping calculus for India has seen some changes. While the traditional incentives for participation play an important role, their significance has reduced as considerable benefits have already been reaped.
New imperatives have gained importance and several challenges in peacekeeping practice have emerged. In the face of these circumstances, two main factors are responsible for India’s continued support to UNPK. These are India’s great power aspirations and the advent of China as a significant troop contributing country.
India’s aspirations for great power recognition and the long-standing goal of attaining permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council are well documented. They have guided India’s participation, performance and contributions in peacekeeping missions in the past and will continue to do so.
However, the rise of Chinese interest in peacekeeping missions has significantly influenced India’s peacekeeping commitments during the last decade. Since 2000, China has followed a policy of rapid expansion in peacekeeping deployments to UN operations and has now emerged as the ninth largest contributor to UNPK.
While this can be seen as China’s efforts to become more responsive to international expectations and also as a sign of China’s assertiveness in pursuing its goals on the world stage; India is not particularly pleased with this development.
The fact that Mr Modi announced additional support to the existing peacekeeping operations after Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to contribute 8,000 troops for a UNPK standby force, along with a monetary contribution of one billion dollars to a United Nations peace and development fund, can be seen as an illustration of the power dynamics between the two countries.
Mr Modi’s categorical reference to the lack of troop-contributing countries having a role in the decision-making process and inadequate representation in senior management, being responsible for the growing challenges in peacekeeping, in his address at the peacekeeping summit, hit the nail on the head.
However, merely mentioning or acknowledging the issue does not solve the problem. Unfortunately, most of India’s efforts have been restricted to only raising the issue at varied forums and the result has been far from satisfactory.
Interestingly, India’s efforts to question the UNPK policy and practice on several occasions have often been viewed as a veiled effort to promote its candidature for a permanent seat of UNSC rather than an attempt to challenge the status quo.
In order to adequately address the challenges, India has to adopt a systematic strategy, which should aim at leveraging its strength, expertise and experience in peacekeeping to exercise bargaining powers at the international level.
To achieve this, India will have to frame and adopt a clear cut peacekeeping policy by re-visiting the rationales, benefits and challenges associated with peacekeeping at the national level. To further strengthen its negotiating powers, India will have to partner with other troop-contributing countries at bilateral level sand strengthen cooperation mechanisms in order to consolidate their respective powers and present themselves as a powerful, united voice at the international level.
(The writer is Fellow, Centre for Policy Research
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