Paper short abstract:

The paper will analyze a proposed Brazilian way of peacekeeping employed in the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH).

Paper long abstract:

The country of Haiti has been under a UN stabilization mission since 2004. MINUSTAH, la Mission des Nations Unies pour la stabilisation en Haïti, represents one of the longest UN peacekeeping mission currently deployed as well as the only one in the Americas.

One particular aspect of the mission is the fact that the military of MINUSTAH is exclusively composed of non-Western countries and headed by Brazil which provides the Force Commander as well as the largest troop contingency.

The proposed paper will analyze the specific role of Brazil and its deployed soldiers from four axes. It embarks on an ascribed south-south cultural proximity between Haiti and Brazil that is secondly built upon intensely in forms of civil military cooperation (CIMIC) and thirdly results in a specific "Brazilian way of peacekeeping" which aside from its ascribed merits for the Haitian population fourthly also profits the Brazilian military.

The data is drawn from fieldwork in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and includes perspectives of expatriate MINUSTAH personnel, especially Brazilian military, but also NGO employees involved in civil military cooperation, and will be balanced with Haitian views on the presence of MINUSTAH in Haiti.