Understanding Bangladesh's security governance through peacekeeping assemblage: does contribution matter?

Abstract

Abstract How do international peacekeeping experiences inform the security governance of contributing states from the global South? This article advances theoretical and policy arguments that international peacekeeping exposure contributes to forming multitudes of effects on domestic security affairs and shaping the contributing countries' security governance. The analysis problematizes the transformation of norms, policies, practices and institutional approaches in shaping the national security outlook of the contributing nations. Considering peacekeeping as a discursive ‘glo-cal’ affair and Bangladesh as a critical case, this study underscores how Bangladesh's contributions to United Nations Peace Support Operations (UNPSOs) inform its security governance. The article adopts a qualitative–interpretive approach to examine the assembling effects of Bangladesh's participation in such endeavours. It highlights the transformation in security institutions, new capacities in knowledge and income-generating sectors, new peacekeeping norms, and partnerships in security cooperation as the cornerstones in the national security outlook. Extending the purview of the existing literature on contributors' roles and impact, this article has offered assemblage as a dynamic conceptual lens to understand new domestic significance for the armed forces as global peace providers. Challenges related to the struggle for democracy, political stability and good governance persist in Bangladesh; nevertheless, the peacekeeping assemblage explains how the country has considered accelerating its global peace endeavours.