The United Nations Peace Operations and Motivations at the Roots of Turkey’s Involvement
The United Nations Peace Operations and Motivations at the Roots of Turkey’s Involvement

Author(s): Uğur Güngör
Subject(s): International relations/trade, Security and defense, Military policy
Published by: Atatürk Stratejik Araştırmalar Enstitüsü
Summary/Abstract: This policy brief studies the evolution of United Nations peace operations and aims at analyzing the moti-vations that lie at the root of Turkey’s involvement in peace operations, mostly organized under the leader-ship of the United Nations in the post-Cold War era. The brief puts forth the argument that participation in such operations has been an identity-constructing activity in the sense that Turkey has, through this par-ticular way, tried to reinforce its eroding western identity in the 1990s. This brief also discusses alternative motivations behind Turkey’s involvement in peace operations, such as security-related considerations in a neo-realist vein and domestic influence of ethnic and religious pressure groups, but argues that these accounts fall short of offering convincing explanations.

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