Peacekeepers Without Helmets: How Violence Shapes Local Peacebuilding by Civilian Peacekeepers

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Titel: Peacekeepers Without Helmets: How Violence Shapes Local Peacebuilding by Civilian Peacekeepers
Autoren: Allard Duursma, Hannah Smidt
Quelle: Comparative Political Studies. 57:778-817
Verlagsinformationen: SAGE Publications, 2023.
Publikationsjahr: 2023
Schlagwörter: united nations, civil war, 05 social sciences, 0211 other engineering and technologies, civilian components in peacekeeping operations, 02 engineering and technology, 16. Peace & justice, local-level peacebuilding, non-state conflict, 0506 political science
Beschreibung: While United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations are increasingly deployed during ongoing violent conflict, they are also increasingly staffed with civilian personnel tasked with peacebuilding at the local level. How does violent conflict affect civilian peacekeepers’ peacebuilding efforts locally? Shifting the research focus from military to civilian peacekeepers, we argue that the latter have various incentives and the capacity to concentrate their local-level peacebuilding efforts in violence-affected areas. We test our argument using novel, georeferenced data on peacebuilding by “Civil Affairs” personnel of the peacekeeping operation in the Central African Republic. Consistent with our expectation, violence positively correlates with civilian peacekeepers’ peacebuilding interventions both within and across localities. Furthermore, mediation analyses suggest that this correlation is not merely due to greater UN military deployments in violence-affected areas. Instrumental variable regression supports a causal interpretation: violence leads to more efforts by civilian peacekeepers. These findings inform expectations and assessments of peacekeeping effectiveness.
Publikationsart: Article
Sprache: English
ISSN: 1552-3829
0010-4140
DOI: 10.1177/00104140231178740
DOI: 10.3929/ethz-b-000617160
Rights: CC BY NC
Dokumentencode: edsair.doi.dedup.....167c7312ff226a33d2a37fed2a52789a
Datenbank: OpenAIRE
Beschreibung
Abstract:While United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations are increasingly deployed during ongoing violent conflict, they are also increasingly staffed with civilian personnel tasked with peacebuilding at the local level. How does violent conflict affect civilian peacekeepers’ peacebuilding efforts locally? Shifting the research focus from military to civilian peacekeepers, we argue that the latter have various incentives and the capacity to concentrate their local-level peacebuilding efforts in violence-affected areas. We test our argument using novel, georeferenced data on peacebuilding by “Civil Affairs” personnel of the peacekeeping operation in the Central African Republic. Consistent with our expectation, violence positively correlates with civilian peacekeepers’ peacebuilding interventions both within and across localities. Furthermore, mediation analyses suggest that this correlation is not merely due to greater UN military deployments in violence-affected areas. Instrumental variable regression supports a causal interpretation: violence leads to more efforts by civilian peacekeepers. These findings inform expectations and assessments of peacekeeping effectiveness.
ISSN:15523829
00104140
DOI:10.1177/00104140231178740