Re-Importing the ‘Robust Turn’ in UN Peacekeeping: Internal Public Security Missions of Brazil’s Military

Abstract

Brazil has been the largest troop contributor and provided all force commanders to the UN Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH, 2004–2017). As the military embraced a leading role in UN peacekeeping’s turn towards peace-enforcement, Brazil’s governments have increasingly relied on soldiers in public security–occasionally even portraying these operations as a sort of ‘peacekeeping at home’. Yet how has Brazil’s participation in MINUSTAH affected internal military operations? I argue that narratives of the military’s effectiveness in Haiti have been used to legitimise the growing scope of internal public security missions. Drawing on data from a questionnaire-based survey, interviews and focus groups with soldiers and officers, this paper argues that the experience in Haiti has fuelled troops’ demands for rules of engagement that resemble those in UN peacekeeping. Given the armed forces’ increasing bargaining power in Brazil’s politics, the military leadership has been able to successfully lobby in favour of changing parts of the legal framework for internal operations. Lessons from the ‘robust turn’ have been used to promote more coercive internal missions of Brazil’s armed forces. Yet it is impossible to fully reconcile the content of the military’s demands with the rule of law in a democracy.