Winning Hearts and Minds: Leveraging Soft Power in Peacekeeping

Peacekeeping missions following the notions of security sector governance- and reform (SSG/R), as stipulated in the UN Resolution 2553 (2020) e.g., ideally adhere to the SSG/R most fundamental approach, the local ownership. Basically local ownership means that SSR-measures in a respective country are first and foremost devised and implemented by local actors and not by external actors. The role of external actors, such as SSR-programme officers of the UN-Missions, is merely to support the respective local actors in their endeavour. Yet, external actors are, intentionally or unintentionally, trying to affect the SSR-processes with their respective normative ideas and perceptions on an informal level. Since the external actors are everything else than homogenous but a heterogeneous actor group with most differing ideas, there are rivalling- and even contradicting concepts of reform measures in place. Since the imposition of alien concepts in peacebuilding- and SSR-contexts failed, as existing research suggests, the success of influencing the locally driven reform process mostly depends on negotiation. Based on several extended research stays, ethnographic research and qualitative interviews with local and international actors concerned with security governance in Timor-Leste, this paper looks on the micro level of everyday peacekeeping. It asks for the leverage of contributing countries and their respective representatives on site to influence the reform process in the host country. The paper argues that, in the case of Timor-Leste, the leverage of soft power prevailed over hard power.