The Interplay of Systemic-Domestic Determinants of Malaysia’s UNPKO

This chapter groups Malaysia’s UNPKO according to specific Prime Ministers before analysing the interactions between the prevailing systemic-external and domestic-internal conditions to determine the conditions under which, how and when, they influenced Malaysia’s UNPKO. Mostly, despite the Prime Ministers’ dominance over state institutions, systemic pressures still set the parameters for their decisions vis-a-vis UNPKO. This chapter observes that Tunku Abdul Rahman perceived mixed systemic pressure and high state power, making Malaysia’s participation in UNPKO likely. Tun Razak and Tun Hussein, on the other hand, perceived both systemic pressure and state power as high, making Malaysia’s UNPKO unlikely. Subsequently, both Tun Mahathir and Tun Abdullah perceived a mixture of low systemic pressure and high state power, making Malaysia’s UNPKO likely. This chapter concludes that the Prime Ministers’ perceived level of systemic pressure mostly overruled their perceived level of state power. However, at times, the Prime Ministers’ mixed or indeterminate perception of systemic pressure might cause that perception to assume the independent causal function.