The Uruguayan Contribution to United Nations Peace Operations: Motivations and Interpretative Analysis of its Record

Abstract

The Uruguayan record as UN (United Nations) peace operations personnel contributor country, its volume and persistence, has attracted the attention of academic researchers. Despite its small population and modest military capabilities, Uruguay has followed the remarkable expansion of UN peace operations during the last two decades and ranks as one of its main contributor countries since 2002. The paper puts in focus the Uruguayan peace operations contribution trends and motivations, arguing that this policy was the outcome of a de facto win-win game settled during the democratic transition between the armed forces and the elected governments. The article suggests an interpretation to the paradox arisen in the 2010s. Uruguay continues to rank among the fifteen biggest UN peace operations contributor countries, even if the stability of democratic institutions is not at stake anymore and the original motivations for the Uruguayan troop contribution have lost much of its weight.