Includes bibliographical references (pages 171-198) and index.

Conflicting normative and operational imperatives : a conceptual framework -- The evolution and discourse of local ownership -- Understanding of local ownership -- Operationalizations of local ownership : practices -- Operationalization of local ownership : actors -- Local ownership : a discursive tool? -- Local ownership : an operational obstacle? -- Conclusion. Annex I : list of interviewees -- Annex II : list of UN peacekeeping operations, 1948-2016.

"Recent years have seen an increasing emphasis on local ownership in United Nations peacekeeping. Advocates assert that it boosts the legitimacy and sustainability of peacekeeping by helping to preserve the principles of self-determination and non-imposition in an activity that can contravene them. However, whether this assertion holds in practice has not been backed up by careful conceptual and empirical analysis. This book fills this gap by mapping the discourse, understandings, and operationalization of local ownership in UN peacekeeping, both from the perspective of the UN and local actors. Drawing on the case of the UN peacekeeping operation in DR Congo and a number of other cases, it shows that despite its regular invocation of local ownership discourse, the UN operationalizes ownership in restrictive ways that are intended to protect the achievement of operational goals but which consequently limit self-determination and increase external imposition on the host country."--