Advancing the Frontier of Peacekeeping Research

Gizelis, Theodora‐Ismene; Benson, Michelle

doi:10.1177/0022002718821709

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…More research is needed to confirm or invalidate more implications of our analysis, and to further assess the relative effectiveness of peacekeeping instruments under different conditions, including at the subnational level (Gizelis and Benson 2019). However, this article takes a crucial step toward carefully theorizing and quantitatively testing a potentially important non-military instrument by which intervention helps secure settlements following civil conflicts.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While the international community engages in various forms of intervention, peacekeeping after civil conflict is one of the most invasive, and operations led by the United Nations (UN), in particular, have increased in frequency and intensity (Fortna and Howard 2008). There is an emerging consensus that this type of intervention “works” in improving prospects for post-conflict peace (Doyle and Sambanis 2006; Fortna 2008; Gilligan and Sergenti 2008; Gizelis and Benson 2019; Walter 2002). Existing work shows that third-party involvement can help combatants overcome the challenge of credibly committing to a negotiated settlement (Walter 2002).…”

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confidence: 99%

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How Does International Intervention Work to Secure Peace Settlements After Civil Conflicts?

Matanock

Lichtenheld

2022

Brit. J. Polit. Sci.

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There is an emerging consensus that international intervention can secure peace by helping combatants resolve commitment problems following civil wars. But how do interveners accomplish this? Some suggest that intervention primarily works through military coercion, while others propose non-military instruments. We build on the existing literature to theorize that interveners commonly condition political, economic, and legal incentives on compliance with peace processes. Despite a rich literature on intervention, scholars have only started to test the underlying instruments. This article takes a critical step toward this end, examining peacekeeping missions led by the United Nations from 1989 to 2012. Contrary to conventional wisdom, we show military coercion is neither commonly used nor necessary to ensure peace. Missions that employ conditional incentives—on which we collect original data—are consistently correlated with a reduced risk of conflict recurrence, even when controlling for observed selection effects, and regardless of whether they are also authorized to use military coercion.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

How Does International Intervention Work to Secure Peace Settlements After Civil Conflicts?

Matanock

Lichtenheld

2022

Brit. J. Polit. Sci.

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“…This link, in turn, matters for our evaluation of peacekeeping effectiveness. Missions are given increasingly comprehensive mandates and there is a tendency to expect more and more of peace operations (Gizelis and Benson, 2019). But the core goal of all postwar missions is to keep a tenuous peace.…”

Section: Shift In the Actors Of Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

Shifting targets: the effect of peacekeeping on postwar violence

Bara

2020

European Journal of International Relations

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Existing research shows that peace after civil wars is more stable with peacekeepers present. Yet, violence persists in many postwar contexts, and although postwar violence is often strategic and closely linked to the faultlines of the preceding war, we know little about the impact of peacekeepers on such violence. What we know, moreover, focuses on the former combatants, while this study shows that the majority of deaths in postwar violence are inflicted by other armed actors. This is a challenge for peacekeepers who – for mandate or capacity reasons – usually focus on the warring parties. I argue that the impact of peacekeepers on postwar violence hinges on the extent to which they fill a public security gap after war, since responsibility for violence not covered by a mission’s mandate lies with the often dysfunctional security agencies of the state. To test this I use a novel spatial approach to generate data that captures the manifold manifestations of violence across different postwar contexts. I find that only UN police – with their broader effect on public security – mitigate postwar violence generally. UN troops have some impact on civilian targeting by former combatants but no such effect could be identified for violence by other armed actors. The findings highlight the importance of peacekeeping police at a time when the modus operandi and capacity of UN police have been questioned, but also the importance of accounting for a multitude of violent actors when analysing the impact of international interventions more generally.

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A New Era: Power in Partnership Peacekeeping

Schumann

Bara

2023

International Studies Quarterly

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UN blue helmets increasingly deploy in partnership with regional organizations and coalitions of states. While this development is hailed as a way out of geopolitical fragmentation and capacity overstretch, little is known about the effectiveness of these peacekeeping partnerships. We argue that UN and non-UN operations exercise different forms of power, which reinforce each other to reduce battle violence in active wars. If non-UN military operations actively engage in combat, the UN can focus on what it does best—employing its broad toolbox to coerce, induce, and persuade. Our quantitative analysis of the interaction between UN and non-UN peacekeeping supports these expectations: partnership peacekeeping works. With a non-UN partner, UN troops can reduce battlefield violence more effectively, that is, with fewer blue helmets. Importantly, non-UN missions need UN operations to successfully curb violence. The UN’s multidimensional engagement offsets the potential negative effects of an all-too militarized approach to violence reduction. Regional and coalition peacekeeping can only support the UN, not replace it.

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Advancing the Frontier of Peacekeeping Research

Cited by 5 publications

References 26 publications

How Does International Intervention Work to Secure Peace Settlements After Civil Conflicts?

How Does International Intervention Work to Secure Peace Settlements After Civil Conflicts?

Shifting targets: the effect of peacekeeping on postwar violence

A New Era: Power in Partnership Peacekeeping

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