Introduction — two tracks

The UN is the largest, most widely represented and most powerful intergovernmental organization, built after the Second World War on the philosophy of Liberal Institutionalism to promote cooperation and maintain international order.

• Jeffrey Sachs — the UN is the most important political innovation of the twentieth century.
• David Scott — for a rising power, voice and weight inside international organizations is both a ‘symbolic’ and a ‘substantive’ measure of foreign-policy success. Rising powers push to convert new capabilities into recognition, prestige and control over the rules.

“…may redistribute control from one state to another and benefit those governments at the centre of transnational networks to the disadvantage of those in the periphery.”

Robert Keohane & Joseph Nye** (on transnational institutions)

India’s UN engagement — two tracks that reinforce each other: Track 1 · The Field (Largest cumulative peacekeeping contributor) + Track 2 · Diplomacy (A sustained campaign for UNSC reform and a permanent seat) → Stakeholder (Contributor in the field, reformer in diplomacy)

India & the Making of the UN

Manu Bhagavan — India helped conceptualize the UN and, at its birth and soon after, moulded it into an organization of universal character and appeal.

• India led efforts against a South African law — the Ghetto Act (Apartheid law) — in one of the UN’s first acts, with lasting effect on the UN’s powers and its self-understanding.
• India also helped develop the Security Council.
• Through the UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP), set up in May 1947, India joined UN peace work even before independence.

→ A founding member, associated with the organization since inception.

UN Peacekeeping — Meaning & Basis

3.1 Basis in the Charter. Chapter VII lets the Security Council use armed force, if other measures fail, to maintain or restore international peace and security; members must provide forces and facilities.

The point not widely known — Satish Nambiar There is no specific provision for peacekeeping in the UN Charter. It was invented by the Secretary-General and the Secretariat as a non-coercive tool for conflict management during a period when Cold War limits blocked the assertive measures the Charter allows.

• Neither superpower would accept UN intervention against allies or within its sphere — the improvisation was peacekeeping without combat connotations.
• → A face-saving device that kept the UN relevant after collective security failed; in an era of Council contestation, peacekeeping has preserved the organization’s utility.

3.2 Guiding principles — every operation authorized by the UNSC

Impartiality · Consent of the parties · Force only in self-defence · Defence of the mandate

3.3 Present position

• Established in 1948; the second-largest military force deployed abroad after the US military. Governed by the Department of Peace Operations (UNDPO).
• Tasks: safeguard civilians, prevent conflict, mitigate violence, enhance security, and enable national authorities to take over.
• 71 field missions since 1948; about 81,820 personnel across four continents in 13 operations. (As of May 2025, roughly 69,000 uniformed personnel in 11 active missions.)

Evolution of Peacekeeping

Four phases, from execution through an agent nation to a development-linked Peacebuilding Commission.

India’s Participation in UN Peacekeeping

5.1 Foundations of the approach

Satish Nambiar — as a founding member, India’s contribution to international peace and security has been second to none, and in no field more than UN peace operations, beginning with Korea in 1950. The original impulse came from Jawaharlal Nehru: liberal internationalism, a desire to strengthen the UN, and peacekeeping as part of his larger goal of peaceful coexistence. Samantha Power praised India’s support, recalling Nehru’s belief that serving India means serving the millions who suffer.

→ Not a permanent member, yet India punches well above its weight in troop and police contribution.

5.2 Deployments during the Cold War

→ Across the Cold War, India contributed about 38,000 troops on the Korean peninsula, in Indochina, the Middle East and the Congo.

5.3 Deployments after the Cold War

• Commanders, observers, staff officers — Iran–Iraq, Iraq–Kuwait (1991), Angola, Central America, El Salvador, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Lebanon (1998–), Ethiopia–Eritrea, DR Congo (1999–), Côte d’Ivoire, Burundi, Sudan, the Golan Heights.
• Military contingents — Cambodia, Mozambique (ONUMOZ), Somalia, Rwanda (UNAMIR), Angola, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia–Eritrea.
• Police — Namibia, Western Sahara, Cambodia, Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Congo, Liberia, Sudan. Naval — a task force of three ships to UNITAF, India’s first naval contribution to peacekeeping.
• Outside the UN framework — tsunami relief in Indonesia, the Maldives and Sri Lanka (2004), coordinated with Australia, Japan and the US.

→ India has served in every UN peace operation in Africa and led several. Current contingents: UNIFIL (Lebanon), UNMISS (South Sudan), MONUSCO (DR Congo), UNDOF (Golan Heights).

5.4 The cumulative record

Seven decades of contribution — the numbers to hold: 2,90,000+ personnel since 1950 · 50+ UN missions · 182 fatalities — highest of any nation · 15 Force Commanders

Largest cumulative contributor over seven decades; about 4,300 serving today across 10 of the 11 active missions. India led from the early 1990s but now ranks third, behind Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The distinction to hold: India is the largest cumulative contributor, while its current standing in active deployment is lower.

5.5 Institutional & peacebuilding contribution

• Member of the Organizational Committee of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) — argues for nationally-led plans and a ‘lighter touch’ from the PBC; contributor to the UN Peacebuilding Fund.
• Centre for United Nations Peacekeeping (CUNPK), New Delhi — Secretariat for International Peacekeeping Institutes for almost two decades; the India–ASEAN Initiative for Women in UN Peacekeeping runs here; now trains about 12,000 personnel a year.
• Recognition through the Dag Hammarskjöld Award and the UN Medal. Operation Maitri — water channels and medical care for drought-hit communities in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Role of the Indian Armed Forces

Central to the success of UN missions across three registers:

• Leadership in command — Indian officers have commanded multinational forces in difficult theatres. Satish Nambiar develops this in For the Honour of India: A History of Indian Peacekeeping.
• Operational excellence — monitoring ceasefires, protecting civilians, disarming combatants; professionalism that set a recognised standard.
• Humanitarian impact — medical care and rebuilt infrastructure alongside military tasks; water channels and health facilities in Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Women & Peacekeeping

Only about 6 per cent of UN peacekeepers are women; India has led here in practice, not declaration.

• 2007 — the UN’s first all-women Formed Police Unit to Liberia (UNMIL), serving until 14 February 2016 while empowering Liberian women; newer women’s units to Abyei.
• The India–ASEAN Initiative for Women in UN Peacekeeping runs training at CUNPK. Major Radhika Sen won the “Military Gender Advocate of the Year 2023” award.
• Dyan Mazurana, Angela Raven-Roberts and Jane Parpart, in Gender, Conflict, and Peacekeeping, show why including women makes peace processes more effective and inclusive.
• Gender-parity targets for 2025: 12 per cent of contingent troops and 25 per cent of individual police officers.

Recent Trends in India’s Peacekeeping Role

• Specialized contributions — engineering corps, medical teams and trainers; Satish Nambiar on the effectiveness this adds.
• Complex missions — high-risk roles in South Sudan and the DR Congo; Gurmeet Kanwal, in Indian Army: Vision 2020, on how Indian military strategy has adapted.
• Technology — India helped design UNITE AWARE, a situational-awareness platform built with UNDPO; S. Jaishankar has pressed for “protecting the protectors”.
• Recognition — in 2024, Naik Dhananjay Kumar Singh (MONUSCO) received the Dag Hammarskjöld Medal posthumously.
• Normative leadership — India championed UNSC Resolution 2589 on accountability for crimes against peacekeepers.

→ Counter-trend: India’s rank in current deployment has slipped to third behind Pakistan and Bangladesh, even as its cumulative record remains the largest.

India’s Policy on Peacekeeping

• Non-alignment & sovereignty — rooted in respect for state sovereignty; Indian peacekeepers hold to impartiality and take no side in internal conflicts.
• Focus on developing nations — concentrated in Africa, in line with South–South cooperation and solidarity with the Global South.
• Character of the contribution — measured not only by numbers but by professionalism, humanitarian concern and gender awareness; Indian contingents are described as ‘Reliable’ peacekeepers through easy adaptation, long deployment and readiness to take risks.

Criticism of India’s Peacekeeping Role

Satish Nambiar reads India’s spontaneous, unreserved participation as commitment to the Charter in real terms — to the point of accepting casualties — earning respect from successive Secretaries-General and professionals who worked with Indian commanders. The record has still been questioned.

• Nitin Pai and Sushant Singh — the “poorly equipped, mandated and governed operations” of UN peacekeeping; participation is not commensurate to results, whether a UNSC seat or “great power status”. Anit Mukherjee records the same — “not commensurate to results”.
• Peacekeeping is done mostly by developing-country troops; critics say such company implies India may not be taken seriously as a standalone great power.
• Thierry Tardy — little goodwill was gained, shown by India’s loss to Japan in the 1996 UNSC election at the height of its effort.
• Richard Gowan and Sushant Singh — contribution flows from habit, not design; India must build strategies that convert it into recognition. Manmohan Bahadur — goodwill in UN circles but little impact on power play, which turns on funding and the P5.
• Bad publicity through instances of sexual misconduct and corruption; funders generally have a greater say than troop donors.

→ Not all criticisms are equally valid — especially on the meaning of ‘great power’ — but together they open a serious debate on peacekeeping and India’s place in it.

Issues & Constraints in Indian Peacekeeping

• Protective equipment — a UN investigation found 2,200 Indian troops in South Sudan without proper protective equipment. Complex environments — militias and difficult terrain in Congo, Somalia and South Sudan.
• Under-resourcing & casualties — many missions underfunded; India carries the highest fatalities of any contributor. Limited UNSC influence — decisions turn on funding and P5 interests.
• Domestic pressures — low defence expenditure and personnel shortages raise the question of scaling back. Local cultural knowledge — gaps limit the soft power deployment could generate.
• China’s rising role — China uses peacekeeping to build defence diplomacy with African states; C. Raja Mohan notes this has given it a political advantage over India in the discourse. Add the reluctance of developed states to contribute, and the growing danger from non-state actors.

Reforms India Proposes in Peacekeeping

Peacekeeping is changing “faster than ever”; India’s proposals run through the whole mission cycle.

• Troop- and police-contributing countries must have a voice “at every level and in every facet” of mandating, planning and review; Council directives must fit field conditions and match the resources allocated.
• Mandates must be field-driven, realistic, and tied to a political goal and end-state; the Council should decide new missions within 30 days, never beyond 90.
• Budgets must match mandates — modern equipment, early-warning technology and training, with wider use of CUNPK; better casualty evacuation and intelligence; zero tolerance on misconduct.
• More resources for post-conflict peacebuilding so gains persist; recruitment of civilian specialists — engineers, medics, gender advisers, climate and cyber experts.

“Adapting peace operations to new realities cannot happen unless those on ground… are made part of the mandate formulation process at every stage.”

Ambassador Pardeep Kumar Harish

→ Wider context: the 2025 Berlin UN Peacekeeping Ministerial is “a high-level political forum to discuss the future of peacekeeping”. It has enabled the Peacekeeping Capability Readiness System (PCRS) and a Rapid Deployment Level with units “on standby to deploy within 60 days”, alongside the A4P and A4P+ push for political support and predictable financing.

Assessment of India’s Peacekeeping Record

Way forward — C. Raja Mohan: deepen cooperation with major powers and the African Union; go beyond troops to training, logistics and mediation; expand domestic defence capability and military diplomacy. The India–US agreement to jointly train peacekeepers from six African nations signals the change.

→ Kofi Annan’s call to move from “peace-keeping” to “peace-building” sets the direction for India’s professional and empathetic forces.