Can you see Peace in a Peacekeeper? : Analysis on the Finnish Peacekeeping Manuals Imagery

Abstract

We live in a time of militarisation in Europe. Uncertain times, combined with possible external threats, can create an urgent need to look for something permanent and stable, something to trust and rely on. Armies and soldiers, including peacekeepers, can be some of those entities whose prestige increases in times of crisis. Finland is well known around the world as a major peacekeeping power; it has been said that Finnish peacekeeping is a national success story. The Finnish army and peacekeeping are interlinked in Finland while military power has a solid, largely unquestioned position. From a peace perspective, the rise of militarism can be seen as a counterproductive, undesirable development. But if peace is associated with peacekeeping, how peaceful is the peacekeeper´s image and how it has changed? The aim of this study is to examine the changing nature of the peacekeeper´s image in the Finnish peacekeeping catalogue.

In order to evaluate Finnish peacekeeping imagery, and raise the overall peacekeeping awareness, this research seeks to investigate peacekeeper´s image portrayed in the Finnish peacekeeping manuals. For this purpose, I have collected what I call "official and labeled" manuals, and analysed images of the manuals from 1976 to 2024. I researched the images in the historical, cultural and political contexts of their representation while also paying attention to the surrounding setting. I focused on reading the visual features of the images in terms of weapons and military equipment, masculinity, gender, whiteness, symbols and semiotics. In my thesis, and with the critical military analyst mindset, I then used the methods of discourse analysis together with content analysis to see what is the typical image of a peacekeeper, and how it has changed over the past 50 years.

The findings indicate that the ideal image of the Finnish peacekeeper has always been young, white male, and by default a peacekeeper seems to be armed and on stand-by. In Finnish peacekeeping context, the image of the peacekeeper is mostly presented as a male, masculine and military figure even though women have been involved in peacekeeping for more than 30 years. The masculine peacekeeper-soldier ideal has not been much questioned in the past, and by emphasising and reproducing the ideal in the peacekeeping imagery have strengthened and reinforced the perception of what type, colour and gender true Finnish peacekeepers are. In Finland, women have been participating in peacekeeping operations alongside men since 1991, and have been eligible for voluntary military service since 1995. However, the study found that the visibility of women in peacekeeping manuals is low or moderate at best despite the reforms of the armed forces, and the adoption of the UN's Women, Peace and Security agenda in 2000, where one of the key objectives was to increase the role of women in both peacekeeping and peacebuilding.

At least since the 2000s, when traditional peacekeeping tasks were transformed into military crisis management operations, the image of the peacekeeper seems to have become more professionalised and militaristic, more military-like. The footage also shows that the number of women involved in peacekeeping has increased over the years, but their role has historically been limited compared to men, and women have also participated in fewer activities than men.