Abstract
While the importance of local legitimacy for the success of international peace-support operations has been widely acknowledged, the research on international peacekeeping operations has not paid enough attention to the communication strategies employed to legitimize the missions vis a vis local population. Drawing on the insights from the research on strategic communication and narrative approaches to politics, this paper explores narrative strategies employed by the UN peacekeeping mission in Southern Lebanon (UNIFIL II) to ensure its acceptance and justify its locally contested presence and mandate.
Based on analysis of mission's public media (text, audio and video materials) and interviews with mission's personnel, the paper shows how are the key characters, activities and setting depicted in the narrative. The paper subsequently identifies three key legitimizing strategies contained within the mission's narrative - limitation, association and localization - and points out the activities and actors that are included or excluded from it according to the discursive structures that guide the narration.
In conclusion, the paper discusses the importance of the local scale and association with the local sources of legitimacy for the legitimation of the international actors.