Beyond the Battlefield: the Impact of United Nations and African-Led Peacekeeping on Enhancing Capabilities of African Armies

Abstract

The character of conflicts across Africa has evolved, necessitating the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations (UN pko), African-led Peace Support Operations (pso) and African states to adapt their approach to dealing with emerging insecurities. As a response, African states have deployed their armies to UN pko, African-led pso s and other peace operations to not only support these missions’ objectives and receive training for their forces but also to develop security and military capacities to deal with emerging and existing threats. Drawing on the cases of Chad and Ghana, the paper explores the formation of the respective armies, their influence on their political systems and how the respective armies have been influenced by their participation in peacekeeping operations. The analysis finds that despite being under-equipped and working in challenging environments. Both forces influence and shape the mission’s tempo and style of operations by adapting to regional challenges, which is a consequence of the historical and strategic style of the respective militaries but are also capitalised on by the UN pko and African-led pso. Finally, the paper finds that dissimilar environments where the armies are deployed contribute to shaping and supporting both armies’ evolution, increasing their overall agency and legitimacy in peacekeeping.