Brazil's involvement in peacekeeping operations: the new defence-security- foreign policy nexus

This report addresses Brazilian involvement in peacekeeping operations (PKOs) as a challenging learning process in the context of post-cold war UN-led interventions. The Brazilian Ministry of Defence has tried to design a “Brazilian way” of performing in PKOs that has been tested by Brazil’s command of the UN Support Mission for Haiti (MINUSTAH) since 2004 and of the UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the DRC in 2013, and by its participation in the UN Interim Force in Lebanon since 2010. The report discusses the international and domestic impacts of this experience. Brazil’s military interface with UN headquarters has notably increased, as has the perception of the country’s armed forces as an operative part of its presence in global security arenas. Also, the lessons learned in the pacification of Haiti have spilled over into the domestic security realm, with the Peace and Pacification Units currently in place in a number of favelas in Rio benefitting from methods first experimented with in Port-au-Prince. Although the armed forces are keen to continue their involvement in PKOs, the country has decreased its contributions to UN peacekeeping. Current figures are partly explained by the withdrawal of MINUSTAH, but they also reflect domestic economic and political difficulties.