Return from Peacekeeping: Mission Effects on Veterans, States, and Communities

在过去十年中，部署在非洲的维和人员数量翻了一番，在部署的10万多名维和人员中，有三分之二来自非洲军队。大量的国际资源，以资金、设备和培训的形式投入到让非洲士兵为维和任务做好准备，并在部署期间为他们提供支持。然而，人们对维和部署对每年回国的数千名士兵的影响知之甚少。大多数关于维和的实证研究都集中在维和行动、维和地点和特派团应对的冲突上。然而，学术界的关注通常在士兵回国并从维和人员转变为“常规”士兵时结束。同样，虽然关注的重点是维持和平地点受军事任务影响的更广泛的平民社区，但对维和人员来自的社区的影响却没有给予类似的关注。长期以来，人们一直认为，通过增加训练、获得新的专业经验、接触其他外国军队以及增加收入，参与维和任务将对单兵和非洲军队产生更广泛的积极影响。然而，最近在回国的维和人员中发生的叛乱事件挑战了这些假设。需要对回国的维和人员进行实证研究，以进一步了解部署经验如何对个人、社区和军事组织产生各种长期影响。该项目采用多方法方法，包括对维和人员进行一系列深入的定性访谈、生活史访谈、对军方、政府和捐助方领导进行的关键线人访谈，以及对回国维和人员提供的相关材料进行文件/媒体分析。它将通过加纳、塞拉利昂和乌干达三个实地研究点提供跨国比较分析。参与第一年的个人将在大约两年后重新接受采访，以观察随时间的变化。拟议的方法使对维持和平后的调查能够超越及时的快照，而将经验设想为可能具有长期影响的经验。这三个国家的比较为研究不同的政治环境和维持和平框架如何影响参与的士兵的期望和他们回国后的经历提供了机会。它还使人们有机会探索具有不同经验的军事机构和从部署返回后处于不同阶段的前维持和平人员。该项目促进了几个学术领域的辩论，包括安全研究、非洲研究、比较政治学和军事社会学。它还将通过向决策者介绍调查结果和在加纳阿克拉科菲·安南维持和平培训中心举行的传播会议，直接与非洲维持和平领域的主要从业人员和决策者接触（无法参加这些活动的人可以公开获得这些活动的材料）。该项目也引起了非非洲决策者的高度兴趣，因为每年用于维和的60亿美元中的绝大部分来自全球北方国家。这项研究的目的是探讨是否需要在部署前和部署期之外为维和人员提供新的支持形式。

The number of peacekeepers deployed to Africa has doubled over the last decade, with two-thirds of the over 100,000 deployed troops drawn from African militaries. Significant international resources, in the form of funding, equipment, and training are invested into preparing African soldiers for peacekeeping missions and supporting them while on deployment. Yet little is known about the effects of peacekeeping deployments on the thousands of soldiers that return home each year.Most empirical research on peacekeeping is focused on the peace operation, peacekeeping sites, and the conflict that the missions responds to. However, scholarly attention typically ends when soldiers return home and transition from peacekeeper back to a 'regular' soldier. Likewise, while there is focus on the broader civilian communities affected by military missions at the peacekeeping site, similar attention has not been given to the effects on the community that the peacekeepers come from. There have long been assumptions that involvement in peacekeeping missions will have a positive effect on individual soldiers and African militaries more broadly through increased training, new professional experiences, exposure to other foreign militaries, and added income. Yet, recent examples of revolts among returned peacekeepers challenge these assumptions. Empirical research which engages with returned peacekeepers is needed to further understand how deployment experiences can have varied long-term effects on individuals, communities, and military organizations. The project uses a multi-method approach including an in-depth series of qualitative interviews with peacekeepers, life histories, key informant interviews with military, government, and donor leadership and document/media analysis of relevant material related to provisions for returned peacekeepers. It will provide cross-country comparative analysis through three field research sites: Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Uganda. Individuals participating in the first year will be re-interviewed approximately 2 years later to observe changes across time. The proposed methodology allows for the investigation of post-peacekeeping to move beyond a snapshot in time to envisage the experience as one which may have long-term effects. The three country comparison provides the opportunity to examine how different political environments and framings of peacekeeping may impact the expectations of the soldiers involved and their experiences upon their return home. It also allows the chance to explore military institutions with diverse experiences and former peacekeepers at various stages since their return from deployment.This project contributes to debates in several academic fields including Security Studies, African Studies, Comparative Politics, and Military Sociology. It will also engage directly with key practitioners and policy makers within the realm of peacekeeping in Africa through briefings of findings to decision-makers and a dissemination conference at the Kofi Annan Peacekeeping Training Center in Accra Ghana (with material from these events publicly available for those unable to attend). The project also stands to be of high interest to non-African policy-makers as the vast majority of the 6 billion USD spent annually on peacekeeping comes from states in the Global North. The research aims to explore whether new forms of support to peacekeepers are needed which extend beyond pre-deployment and deployment periods.