Mapping blue helmets: Introducing the Geocoded Peacekeeping Operations (Geo-PKO) dataset

Abstract

In this article, we introduce the Geocoded Peacekeeping Operations (Geo-PKO) dataset, which presents new data on subnational peacekeeping deployment for all UN missions to Africa, 1994–2014. The Geo-PKO dataset is the most comprehensive dataset of its kind and enables scholars to address new questions about peacekeeping operations and their effects by exploring variations in peacekeeping at the subnational level. The dataset offers information on several key features of peacekeeping deployment at the local level, such as data on the size of deployments and how these vary over time, as well as information on the location of mission headquarters, the type of peacekeepers deployed, and which troop-contributing countries deploy to each location. This article describes the data collection process and illustrates some of the many utilities of this dataset for the scholarly community. For example, we show that peacekeeping troops are able to reduce battle-related violence in areas with high road density, suggesting that peacekeepers’ ability to project their power is stronger when they can increase their reach and more easily patrol larger territories. Hence, our data can fruitfully be combined with information such as socio-economic, geographical or demographic characteristics, to further explore how peacekeeping operations can contribute to peace and security in the areas where they operate. By providing fine-grained data on the location of peacekeepers across time and space, the Geo-PKO dataset should help facilitate important inquires that can push the research agenda on peacekeeping forward.

Revisiting the local turn in peacebuilding – through the emerging urban approach

“…Another example of this methodology comes from Uppsala University and the recently introduced Geocoded Peacekeeping Operations (Geo-PKO) data set, covering all UN peacekeeping missions to Africa from 1994 to 2014. 9 The data set includes a multitude of information on each deployment (such as sector and main headquarters, types of units deployed, number of troops, troop-contributing countries, etc) at a disaggregated geographical scale involving longitude and latitude coordinates at the city/village level (Cil et al 2020). According to Cil et al (2020, 361), 'This allows users to aggregate the information to various levels of analysis, such as grid cells or administrative units, deemed most suitable to their research design' .…”

“What Do We Really Know about Local Peacekeeping Effects?”

“…Their study focuses on the local variation in eastern DRC with regards to the presence (as well as the number and type) of peacekeepers and the occurrence of political violence in the form of fighting and violence against civilians as coded by the EDACS (Chojnacki et al 2012). Although this finding contradicts the work by Costalli (2014), who concludes that UN troops failed to effectively reduce violence during the Bosnian war, it is largely in line with other recent studies of the local effects of peacekeeping (Cil et al 2019;Di Salvatore 2018;Fjelde et al 2019;Phayal 2019;Phayal and Prins 2019;Ruggeri et al 2017). While these have variying ideas about when and how peacekeeping works at the local level, most recent studies have identified a violence-reducing effect of UN peacekeeping.…”

“…A few studies acknowledge that the effect of increasing troop size varies with local conditions. Cil et al (2019) in fact find no general effect of the number of troops on the number of battle-related fatalities; however, troops do reduce violence in areas with high road density, which facilitates accessibility to violence-prone areas. Di Salvatore (2018) instead explores the importance of ethnic geography, finding that in Sierra Leone UN peacekeeping is more effective in preventing one-sided violence in areas where ethnic polarization is high.…”

“…Most other studies focus on either of these types of violence, but the findings are relatively consistent. Four recent studies show that peacekeepers can reduce the level of one-sided violence in the area of deployment (Di Salvatore 2018; Fjelde et al 2019; Phayal 2019; Phayal and Prins 2019), while two others have identified the potential for peacekeepers to reduce fighting between conflict parties (Ruggeri et al 2017;Cil et al 2019).…”

The Extraordinary Relationship between Peacekeeping and Peace

“…Disaggregated primary data are now available through the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from the Peacekeeping Operations Location and Event Dataset (PKOLED) developed at the Department of Government at the University of Essex. New data on different dimensions of peacekeeping are also increasingly available, including data on personnel contributions to missions (Kathman 2013), gender composition (Karim and Beardsley 2016), mission leadership (Bove, Ruffa and Ruggeri 2019;Bove, Ruggeri and Zwetsloot 2017) and georeferenced event data on PKOs (Cil et al 2019;Dorussen and Ruggeri 2017). 31 These data will allow scholars to trace the varying effects that different types of missions have on a wide range of security and non-security outcomes.…”