This chapter reviews the key lessons from the various research papers. In general, it points out that the research supported the hypotheses on which the study is based. The papers thus supported the importance of prestige, international obligations, hemispheric solidarity, and a residual support for the U.S. as motivations. But it also emphasized that the Latin Americans put more weight on the UN Charter than does the U.S. It also reinforced the importance of domestic political issues and considerations. While the research also supported the notion that political will was a necessary condition for participation in a PKO it did not validate its sufficiency. Rather, the lack of capability in terms of resources was shown to be even more important in some cases than political will. Finally, the research showed that there are a significant number of actions that can be taken by the nations of the hemisphere that will increase their individual and collective capacity to conduct PKO and other integrated operations.
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This paper serves to introduce the Special Edition of Security and Defense Studies Review. It discusses the nature of the research project on Capacity Building in Latin America and the Caribbean: PKO and the Case of Haiti. The paper develops the hypotheses, research questions, and the methodology of the study. Finally, an appendix, provides a list of the nine research questions and their subordinate questions.
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