Portugal: An instrumental approach to peace support operations

Abstract

Until recently, in per capita terms, Portugal was one of the most significant European contributors to international United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations around the world. In the last few years, European Union and NATO missions and operations have topped deployment to UN operations. One can thus state that participation in peace support operations (PSO) has become a lodestar of Portuguese defence and foreign policies. The range of forces deployed, as well as the geographical diversity of deployment attest to the ambition and effort made by the Portuguese governments in becoming relevant in international affairs through PSO in the last 30 years. Given the limitations of a small power as Portugal, specialisation in the field of PSO is an asset for its positioning on the international scene, endowing it with a more active voice in matters of collective security and access to leadership positions.