China’s Stand on UN Peacekeeping Operations

Abstract

This paper focuses on China’s stand on UN peacekeeping operations (UNPKO) with the objective of understanding the wider perspective of its foreign policy determinants. Further, as peacekeeping operations (PKO) are connected with issues of international peace and security, China’s changing stand on these provides some insights into its security concerns. This paper traces China’s initial stand on UNPKO and the reasons underlying that stand; the factors and compulsions which made China change its stand on UNPKO in the 1980s; the effect the end of the Cold War has had on the role of PKO in general and how it has affected China’s perception of international relations; the impact those changed perceptions have had on its stand on UNPKO; and China’s main objections regarding non-traditional PKO and its reasons for these objections.