Exploring Pakistan’s Participation in Un Peacekeeping as an Instrument of International Image-Building

Abstract

Pakistan has always been one of the highest troop contributing nations in United Nations peacekeeping activities, and the country used it as a foreign policy tool. This study explored the role of Pakistan in the UN peacekeeping operations and discussed how this involvement could be considered as an instrument in the international image-building process. The researchers adopted qualitative research design and used the secondary sources of data, such as official UN reports, peer-reviewed journal articles, and foreign policy documents. The researchers used thematic analysis to identify the trends that connect the role of peacekeeping in Pakistan to its overall diplomatic and other soft power goals. The results indicated that Pakistan employed a role of peacekeeping to project a role of a responsible state, advance military credibility, disrupt the negative discourses associated with terrorism, and solidify bilateral and multilateral ties. The paper also found that the economic incentives and institutional prestige supported the long-term participation of Pakistan to UN missions. The researchers concluded that the presence of peacekeeping was a multidimensional tool of foreign policy, which served reputational, diplomatic, and strategic interests at the same time. This work added to the overall knowledge of how developing states negotiated the world politics by an institutional interaction and not by hard power.

Keywords: United Nations, Peacekeeping Activities, Foreign Policy, International Image-Building Process, Bilateral and Multilateral Ties, Pakistan