United States Military Chaplains on the Ground in Today's Peace Operations: Somalia, Haiti, and Bosnia

This research set out to explore the role peacekeepers might play in post-Cold War peace operations and focused on the religious figures who accompanied national contingents into a mission area. Sixty-eight US military chaplains who had deployed with US peacekeepers to Somalia, Haiti, and Bosnia were interviewed. A first-level analysis focused on the activities chaplains’ performed during these operations, the intent behind performance if an activity involved the local population, how chaplains felt their involvement addressed the conflict in the particular country, and whether the chaplains believed there was potential for greater involvement in future peace operations due to their standing as religious figures. A second level of analysis was conducted by matching up roles depicted in the transcripts with those detailed in peacekeeper, third-party, and religious figure literature. Both analyses were carried out on an individual case basis. A third level of analysis was achieved through comparison across cases.