ABSTRACT
This chapter will address the peacekeeping missions in which Japan subsequently took part following the watershed UNTAC mission, namely ONUMOZ, UNDOF, ONUSAL and UNAMIR, in addition to its reaction to events in East Timor and the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 on New York and Washington. This period represents the process of norm cascade and internalisation, which follows a tipping point, to the extent that contribution to the UN, international society and peacekeeping activities is now regarded as a legitimate action and is imbued with a strong sense of normative ‘ought-to-ness’. From the Second Gulf War of the early 1990s to the ‘war on terrorism’ of the early twenty-first century, this decade demonstrates clearly the life cycle of a norm and the process of norm evolution, which will be explored again in Chapter 7. This chapter will begin with a general introduction to the particular characteristics of each peacekeeping operation and changes in the conceptualisation of peacekeeping before proceeding to examine (as in previous chapters) the influence exerted by the various norms in both constraining and encouraging Japan’s contribution and policy-making processes.
