Like Fish in a Stream? Considering the Agency of the UN Peacekeepers of the Global South: Rwanda and India as Case Studies

‘Blue Helmet’ peacekeeping operations have come to characterise the UN’s response to armed conflict. These operations have evolved from the ‘simple’ monitoring of ceasefires into complex ‘peacebuilding’ projects and interventionist ‘peace enforcement’ actions and employ considerable forces of peacekeepers, contributed by member states. The composition of these forces has also transformed over the period as the previously predominant troops from the developed Northern states have given way to the peacekeepers of the Global South. Peacekeeping scholarship is sharply divided between those who regard this sea change as indicative of a rising Global South and those who perceive its soldiers as exploited substitutes for the developed world, finessed into the role via a West-oriented UN. This paper asks if the current composition of troop-contributing countries to UN Blue Helmet peacekeeping operations reflects the changing identities, interests and ambitions of the Global South or just the continuing hegemony of the developed world. Do the Southern states have agency in respect of their participation, or are they merely ‘fish in a stream’, obliged by persistent hegemonic currents to conform to the agendas of the North? Using a case study of India and Rwanda, the article argues that Northern hegemony does still find expression in UN peacekeeping operations but is straining to contain the more assertive Southern states, which participate, largely, for their own carefully considered, often very disparate, reasons.