Sending peacekeepers abroad, sharing power at home: Burundi in Somalia

Abstract

This article examines how the post-conflict political settlement between Burundian parties and external partners has impacted on the decision to deploy Burundian troops in multilateral peace operations in Africa. The authors claim that Burundi's decision to deploy troops, which took place in the midst of an overarching security sector reform, had a temporary stabilizing effect on the internal political balance due to several factors, including professionalization, prestige and financial opportunities. From an international perspective, Burundi's role in peacekeeping has helped to reverse the image of Burundi as a post-conflict country in need of assistance to a peacebuilding state, offering assistance to others, who are worse off. These factors taken together have also enhanced the possibilities of the Burundian government to continue its trend of demanding independence from international oversight mechanisms and political missions, while maintaining good relations with donors, despite reports of increasing authoritarianism and limited political space. The article draws on significant fieldwork, including over 50 interviews with key actors in the field and complements the scarce literature on African troop contributing states.

The African Union and coercive diplomacy: the case of Burundi

“…The Burundian authorities continued to resist external involvement including by declaring four senior UN representatives as persona non grata and calling for a reduced UN presence even after ONUB's departure in December 2006 (Wilén et al . 2015: 10).…”

A test of the democratic peacekeeping hypothesis: Coups, democracy, and foreign military deployments

“…Caverley & Savage (2016) argue that TCCs with more foreign trained officers will be more likely to experience coups and that funding may allow repressive regimes to ignore conditionality on other aid (Savage & Caverley, 2017). Wilén, Ambrosetti & Birantamije (2015) argue that foreign support for peacekeeping has prevented demobilization of former combatants in Burundi. Dwyer (2015) examines mutinies by developing TCC troops operating under poor conditions.…”

“…This reasoning is broadly consistent with peacekeeping's liberal internationalist characteristics, and with research on the democratic peace and democratization and more generally. 1 However, others are skeptical: rather than liberalizing or democratizing TCCs, peacekeeping may encourage or entrench illiberal, undemocratic, or praetorian regimes (Beswick, 2014;Caverley & Savage, 2016;Cunliffe, 2013Cunliffe, , 2018Dwyer, 2015;Sotomayor, 2013;Wilén, Ambrosetti & Birantamije, 2015;Levin, MacKay & Nasirzadeh, 2016).…”