From Field to Feed: Troop-Contributing Countries in the Spotlight of UN Social Media

The United Nations (UN) relies heavily on the voluntary contributions of Troop-Contributing Countries (TCCs) to sustain its peacekeeping operations. Unlike national militaries, the UN lacks standing forces of its own and must continuously secure personnel, capabilities, and political support from member states. This dependence has become increasingly challenging as peacekeeping missions face chronic personnel shortages, declining troop levels, and broader institutional constraints, including limited financial resources and diminishing diplomatic leverage. These conditions complicate the UN’s ability to meet the growing operational demands placed on peacekeeping missions. Against this backdrop, this study examines how the UN strategically employs social media as a tool to publicly recognize and praise TCCs for their contributions, using symbolic acknowledgment to mitigate these structural challenges. Public recognition serves as a low-cost yet potentially effective strategy for an organization with limited coercive or material incentives. By publicly praising TCCs through official social media channels, the UN signals appreciation and legitimacy to both international and domestic audiences. These messages communicate recognition to national decision-makers, reinforce national pride among domestic publics, and help justify continued participation in peacekeeping operations. Such symbolic rewards are particularly valuable in periods of personnel shortages, when the UN must retain existing contributors, and in contexts where it lacks sufficient diplomatic or material leverage to compel continued engagement. To investigate this strategy, the study analyzes Twitter activity from three major UN peacekeeping missions: the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), and the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA). These missions were selected due to their size, operational intensity, and reliance on a diverse set of TCCs. By examining when and how TCCs are publicly acknowledged, the study seeks to identify patterns in the UN’s use of praise and recognition. The findings indicate that the UN’s public praise is not evenly distributed but instead strategically targeted. TCCs are more likely to receive recognition when they contribute large troop deployments, provide specialized or high-demand capabilities, or engage in visible and operationally significant activities. Public acknowledgment is also more frequent during periods of heightened operational pressure, suggesting that recognition is used to reinforce cooperation when the UN’s dependence on contributors is most acute. Rather than serving as a neutral expression of gratitude, praise functions as a calculated signal aimed at sustaining the participation of key contributors. Overall, this analysis highlights the role of symbolic recognition as an underexplored mechanism of institutional influence in international organizations. In the absence of strong material incentives, the UN leverages public praise through social media to encourage continued engagement from TCCs. This strategy illustrates how international organizations can use visibility, reputation, and recognition as tools to navigate resource constraints and sustain cooperation in demanding operational environments.