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This article analyses how peacekeeping became available to Japan as a policy option during the early 1990s and, thereafter, a part of the national security discourse through the international-domestic contexts interaction approach. The international context refers to the nature (culture) of the international environment at a particular period of time defined by the dominant norms that govern inter-state relations. It also highlights the policy options available to states. The domestic context refers to the nature of the leadership within a state that interprets the international norms and incorporates them into the domestic agenda. Japan's implementation of the peacekeeping policy was a result of the collective security norms that defined the international environment during the early 1990s and the re-emergence of the revisionists within the Japanese political system -- a group that embraced the collective security norms and pushed for the peacekeeping policy in the hope of expanding Japanese security policy in the post-Cold War period. [Reprinted by permission; copyright Sage Publications Ltd. & ECPR-European Consortium for Political Research.]

This article analyses how peacekeeping became available to Japan as a policy option during the early 1990s and, thereafter, a part of the national security discourse through the international–domestic contexts interaction approach. The international context refers to the nature (culture) of the international environment at a particular period of time defined by the dominant norms that govern inter-state relations. It also highlights the policy options available to states. The domestic context refers to the nature of the leadership within a state that interprets the international norms and incorporates them into the domestic agenda. Japan's implementation of the peacekeeping policy was a result of the collective security norms that defined the international environment during the early 1990s and the re-emergence of the revisionists within the Japanese political system — a group that embraced the collective security norms and pushed for the peacekeeping policy in the hope of expanding Japanese security policy in the post-Cold War period.

Abstract
How do international peacekeeping experiences inform the security governance of contributing states from the global South? This article advances theoretical and policy arguments that international peacekeeping exposure contributes to forming multitudes of effects on domestic security affairs and shaping the contributing countries' security governance. The analysis problematizes the transformation of norms, policies, practices and institutional approaches in shaping the national security outlook of the contributing nations. Considering peacekeeping as a discursive 'glo-cal' affair and Bangladesh as a critical case, this study underscores how Bangladesh's contributions to United Nations Peace Support Operations (UNPSOs) inform its security governance. The article adopts a qualitative–interpretive approach to examine the assembling effects of Bangladesh's participation in such endeavours. It highlights the transformation in security institutions, new capacities in knowledge and income-generating sectors, new peacekeeping norms, and partnerships in security cooperation as the cornerstones in the national security outlook. Extending the purview of the existing literature on contributors' roles and impact, this article has offered assemblage as a dynamic conceptual lens to understand new domestic significance for the armed forces as global peace providers. Challenges related to the struggle for democracy, political stability and good governance persist in Bangladesh; nevertheless, the peacekeeping assemblage explains how the country has considered accelerating its global peace endeavours.

Multilateral organizations - the United Nations (UN) in particular - have played, and continue to play, an important role in shaping the security sector reform (SSR) agenda, both in terms of policy development and the provision of support to a wide range of national SSR processes. This volume presents a variety of perspectives on UN support to SSR, past and present, with attention to policy and operational practice. Drawing from the experience of UN practitioners combined with external experts on SSR, this volume offers an in-depth exploration of the UN approach to SSR from a global perspective.

Remarks by US Ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright and US position on increasing Security Council membership, from US sources.

In mid-2013, China's increasingly positive policies towards United Nations peacekeeping reached a milestone when the country agreed to send a large detachment of personnel, including combat forces for the first time, to the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (known by its French acronym MINUSMA). This commitment was also distinct in that the mission was not in a region which represented direct Chinese economic interests, unlike other African peacekeeping missions in which Beijing has offered support. Rather, the Mali operation has both cemented Beijing's larger commitment to building African partnerships and has demonstrated a marked contrast to the unilateral approach taken by France in pacifying the country. Although China has warmed to the principles of humanitarian intervention in civil conflicts, it retains a wariness towards peacebuilding operations outside the sponsorship of the UN. Therefore, the Mali operation has been beneficial for China, not only in building its peacekeeping credentials in Africa but also in underscoring China's increasingly distinct, 'neo-Westphalian' views on addressing intervention in domestic conflicts.

In mid-2013, China’s increasingly positive policies towards United Nations peacekeeping reached a milestone when the country agreed to send a large detachment of personnel, including combat forces for the first time, to the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (known by its French acronym MINUSMA). This commitment was also distinct in that the mission was not in a region which represented direct Chinese economic interests, unlike other African peacekeeping missions in which Beijing has offered support. Rather, the Mali operation has both cemented Beijing’s larger commitment to building African partnerships and has demonstrated a marked contrast to the unilateral approach taken by France in pacifying the country. Although China has warmed to the principles of humanitarian intervention in civil conflicts, it retains a wariness towards peacebuilding operations outside the sponsorship of the UN. Therefore, the Mali operation has been beneficial for China, not only in building its peacekeeping credentials in Africa but also in underscoring China’s increasingly distinct, ‘neo-Westphalian’ views on addressing intervention in domestic conflicts.

Selected statements and documents from US sources; text of US Presidential Decision Directive (PDD-25) executive summary, "The Clinton administration's policy on multilateral peace operations," May 5, 1994. Impact of PDD-25 on US role in the UN.