What motivates countries’ decisions to contribute to peacekeeping? : The case of Sweden

Following the mid 1990s, a drop in Swedish contributions to UN led peacekeeping have been evident and EU and NATO led operations have taken preference. However, in 2013 Sweden invested in a substantial troop contribution to a UN led peacekeeping operation in Mali. There is a lack of existing sources providing arguments for this sudden increase of support to a UN peacekeeping operation. This thesis looks at governmental documents and declarations of Sweden in order to find an understanding of why Sweden decided to contribute to the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission (MINUSMA) in Mali in 2013. In light of the past trends of increased focus towards operations led by NATO or the EU, this research was interested in what motivated Sweden to implement a substantial troop contribution to an UN led operation. Through tracing the arguments used by the Swedish government regarding their involvement in Mali and looking at core concepts of rational choice to find if the decision was rational