Nepal's Feat In UN Peacekeeping

Many foreign nationals may not have a chance to visit Nepal but most of the global peace-loving people recognise the Nepali army peacekeepers’ performance in the promotion of international peace and security in complex crisis, conflict or post conflict environment through the United Nations (UN). The UN was created after World War II in 1945 to save the succeeding generation from the scourge of war. Nepal has been participating in the UN peacekeeping mission since 1958. The principal and pragmatic UN peace pedagogies are UN peacemaking and UN peacebuilding.

 UN peacekeeping is the paradigm pride and priority of Nepal’s foreign policy to enhance national interest, identity, and image in the international arena. Nepal became a UN member state on 14 December 1955. The Nepali army began its peacekeeping peregrination in 1958 with the deployment of five military observers in Lebanon. Likewise, the Purano Gorakh was the first battalion deployed to Egypt in 1974. However, the first UN peacekeeping mission was the UN truce supervision observation adopted in 1948, still an operational UN mission.

Sacrifices 

Nepal is the largest troop contributing country (TCC) with 67 years of hands-on experience in UN peacekeeping. The Nepali Army has deployed 4302 UN peacekeepers (391 female) in ten UN missions across the globe. UN peacekeeping is not à la carte, à la carte but it is a sacrifice for peace. The data shows 162,496 Nepali peacekeepers have served in 44 out of 71 UN peacekeeping missions. Altogether 74 Nepali peacekeepers have sacrificed their lives and 77 were injured as of 26 December 2025. 

The UN peacekeepers are the UN military, police, civil and national staff to implement multi-dimensional mission mandates. The NA has demonstrated professionalism in the UN peacekeeping mission, enabling it to promote national interests and global peace and security. King Prithivi Narayan Shah, the founder of the Nepali Army, first established Shree Nath Company on August 23, 1762, and then Kalibox, Bajrabani, Sabuj and Purano Gorakh companies to unite 22 and 24 states and thwart the external threats. Recently Nepali Army celebrated its 263rd anniversary during the Maha Shivaratri festival. Prithvi Narayan Shah’s sagacious vision, mission, objectives, strategy, actions, and divya upadesh still serve as a basis for empirical education to bolster national security.

The Nepali Army has robust experience from defeating the British East India Company-led captain Kinloch troops in November 1767. According to a survey conducted by the Centre for Insights in 2024, the Nepali army is the most trusted (93 per cent) public institution in Nepal. The degree of discipline, dedication, devotion and diplomacy demonstrated by Nepali army is remarkably popular as prodigy praxis in the UN peacekeeping. The professionalism and patriotism of the NA prove that their strategic accuracy is appropriate for security risk management in armed conflict, earthquake, COVID-19, civil unrest (Gen Z movement) and UN peacekeeping operations. 

The Nepali Army is a tough and trusted partner to promote the UN principles, purposes, and procedures to prevent violent conflict. NA peacekeepers have no record of delay, dilemma, and disobedience for deployment, redeployment or rotation, whether their life and limbs are at risk from deliberate attack or deployed in the most dangerous duty station to protect the people and peace. 

Article (1) of the UN Charter clarifies that the primary purpose of the UN is to maintain international peace and security, promote human rights, prevent humanitarian problems and protect civilians by peaceful means (Chapter VI). Article 51 of the constitution states that Nepal’s foreign policy has the essence of the UN Charter. Nepal further pledged to deploy 10,000 UN peacekeepers if it receives the UN requests. The principles of the UN peacekeeping are consent, impartiality and non-use of force except for self-defense and defense of the mandate.

But in some cases, the UN peacekeepers are allowed to apply coercive action under Chapter VII if peace is in imminent threat due to inter-state or intra-state conflict. Imminent threats can be war, conflict, hazards, terrorism, violence, crime, and civil unrest. Johan Galtung (1996) postulates that peace is possible by peaceful means. The UN peacekeepers are a peaceful means. Today, 56,066 peacekeepers are deployed in 11 UN peace missions to stabilise peace and security. The majority of UN member states have a strong conviction to minimise operational cost and maximise the quality of peace products rather than the establishment of an alternative peace council.

Prodigy pride 

The UN Secretary General fills the leadership positions by balancing gender and geography. Brig. General Man Bahadur Mahara is the deputy force commander in the UN Interim Force in Lebanon. Lt. General Ganesh Kumar Shrestha is the force commander in the UN interim security force in Abyei. This senior appointment symbolises ambassadorial achievement in international relations. 

According to the secondary data, Nepal is the 93rd largest in geography; 52nd in population size; ranks 127th in GDP; and 124th in military spending in the world but Nepal is the 1st largest military contributor in the UN peacekeeping. So, the UN has awarded the Nepali Army for fulfilling the UN purposes and principles in a volatile, uncertain, chaotic, and confusing security environment. Nepali stakeholders should be practical to protect prevailing prodigy pride of the army and prioritise peacekeeping.

(Author is a former Colonel and Faculty member of Public Administration Campus, Kathmandu)