Peace is in the Eye of the Beholder: How Perceptions of Impartiality Shape Peacekeeping Outcomes

Abstract

Despite the abundance of evidence that UN peacekeepers limit armed group violence during and after civil wars, we know relatively little about the ability of these peacekeepers to contain more localized forms of violence between non-state actors. Given the rise in atrocities and mass displacements from communal violence across theAfrican continent over the past few years, evaluating the effectiveness of peacekeepingat this level is a pressing concern. This article demonstrates that peacekeeping troopsprevent the onset of communal violence. I use data from a survey experiment conducted in Mali to show that the likely explanation for the e?ffectiveness of UN peacekeepers is that locals see them as impartial. I discuss the implications for understanding the effectiveness of UN peacekeepers from di?erent cultural backgrounds. The paper concludes that UN peacekeepers may limit the outbreak of communal violence even in the most challenging settings.