Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Home
Hostname: page-component-768dbb666b-l8xdn Total loading time: 0.358 Render date: 2023-02-04T16:35:09.244Z Has data issue: true Feature Flags: { "useRatesEcommerce": false } hasContentIssue true
  • English
International Organization International Organization

Article contents

The Promise of Peacekeeping: Protecting Civilians in Civil Wars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2020

Allison Carnegie  and
Christoph Mikulaschek
Get access

Abstract

Do peacekeepers protect civilians in civil conflict? Securing civilian safety is a key objective of contemporary peacekeeping missions, yet whether these efforts actually make a difference on the ground is widely debated in large part because of intractable endogeneity concerns and selection bias. To overcome these issues, we use an instrumental variables design, leveraging exogenous variation in the rotation of African members of the United Nations Security Council and looking at its effects on African civil wars. We show that states that wield more power send more peacekeepers to their preferred locations, and that these peacekeepers in turn help to protect civilians. We thus demonstrate the robustness of many existing results to a plausible identification strategy and present a method that can also be applied to other diverse settings in international relations.

Keywords

Civil warconflictinstrumental variableinternational institutionsUnited Nationspeacekeeping
Type
Research Note
Information
International Organization , Volume 74 , Issue 4 , Fall 2020 , pp. 810 - 832
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Angrist, Joshua, and Pischke, Jorn-Steffen. 2009. Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion. Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Azam, Jean-Paul, and Hoeffler, Anke. 2002. Violence Against Civilians in Civil Wars: Looting or Terror? Journal of Peace Research 39 (4):461–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beardsley, Kyle. 2011. Peacekeeping and the Contagion of Armed Conflict. Journal of Politics 73 (4):1051–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bellamy, Alex, Williams, Paul, and Griffin, Stuart. 2010. Understanding Peacekeeping. Polity.Google Scholar
Blocq, Daniel. 2006. The Fog of UN Peacekeeping. Journal of Military Ethics 5 (3):201–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buhaug, Halvard, and Gleditsch, Kristian. 2008. Contagion or Confusion? Why Conflicts Cluster in Space. International Studies Quarterly 52 (2):215–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carnegie, Allison. 2015. Power Plays: How International Institutions Reshape Coercive Diplomacy. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Carnegie, Allison, and Carson, Austin. 2020. Secrets in Global Governance: Disclosure Dilemmas and the Challenge of International Cooperation. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carnegie, Allison, and Marinov, Nikolay. 2017. Foreign Aid, Human Rights, and Democracy Promotion: Evidence from a Natural Experiment. American Journal of Political Science 61 (3):671–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cunningham, David. 2011. Barriers to Peace in Civil War. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Mesquita, Bruce Bueno, and Smith, Alastair. 2013. Aid: Blame it All on “Easy Money.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 57 (3):524–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diehl, Paul, and Balas, Alexandru. 2014. Peace Operations. Polity.Google Scholar
Downes, Alexander. 2011. Targeting Civilians in War. Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Doyle, Michael, and Sambanis, Nicholas. 2006. Making War and Building Peace: United Nations Peace Operations. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Dreher, Axel, Gould, Matthew, Rablen, Matthew, and Vreeland, James. 2014. The Determinants of Election to the United Nations Security Council. Public Choice 158 (1):51–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eck, Kristine, and Hultman, Lisa. 2007. One-Sided Violence Against Civilians in War: Insights from New Fatality Data. Journal of Peace Research 44 (2):233–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fortna, Page. 2004. Does Peacekeeping Keep Peace? International intervention and the Duration of Peace After Civil War. International Studies Quarterly 48 (2):269–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fortna, Page. 2008. Does Peacekeeping Work? Shaping Belligerents’ Choices After Civil War. Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
House, Freedom. 2014. Freedom in the World. Freedom House.Google Scholar
Gilligan, Michael, and Stedman, Stephen. 2003. Where Do the Peacekeepers Go? International Studies Review 5 (4):37–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gleditsch, Kristian. 2002. All International Politics Is Local: The Diffusion of Conflict. University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harbom, Lotta, Strand, Havard, and Nygard, Havard. 2009. UCDP/PRIO Armed Conflict Dataset Codebook. UCDP and PRIO.Google Scholar
Hoffman, Danny. 2004. The Civilian Target in Sierra Leone and Liberia: Political Power, Military Strategy, and Humanitarian Intervention. African Affairs 103 (411):211–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hogbladh, Stina. 2012. Peace Agreements 1975–2011—Updating the UCDP Peace Agreement Dataset. In States in Armed Conflict 2011, edited by Therese Petterson and Lotta Themnér. Uppsala University Department of Peace and Conflict, Research Report 99.Google Scholar
Holt, Victoria, Taylor, Glyn, and Kelly, Max. 2009. Protecting Civilians in the Context of UN Peacekeeping Operations. United Nations.Google Scholar
Hultman, Lisa. 2007. Battle Losses and Rebel Violence: Raising the Costs for Fighting. Terrorism and Political Violence 19 (2):205–22.Google Scholar
Hultman, Lisa, Kathman, Jacob, and Shannon, Megan. 2013. United Nations Peacekeeping and Civilian Protection in Civil War. American Journal of Political Science 57 (4):875–91.Google Scholar
Kathman, Jacob, and Wood, Reed. 2011. Managing Threat, Cost, and Incentive to Kill: The Short- and Long-Term Effects of Intervention in Mass Killings. Journal of Conflict Resolution 55 (5):735–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krain, Matthew. 2005. International Intervention and the Severity of Genocides and Politicides. International Studies Quarterly 49 (3):363–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kreps, Sarah, and Wallace, Geoffrey. 2009. Just How Humanitarian Are Interventions? Peacekeeping and the Prevention of Civilian Killings During and After Civil Wars. Working Paper.Google Scholar
Ladsous, Hervé. 2014. New Challenges and Priorities for UN Peacekeeping: Speech Delivered on 17 June 2014. Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Mikulaschek, Christoph. 2019. The Power of the Weak: How Informal Power-Sharing Shapes the Work of the UN Security Council. Working Paper.Google Scholar
Novosad, Paul, and Werker, Eric. 2014. Who Runs the International System? Power and the Staffing of the United Nations Secretariat.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paddon Rhoads, Emily. 2016. Taking Sides in Peacekeeping: Impartiality and the Future of the United Nations. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sambanis, Nicholas. 2008. Short- and Long-Term Effects of United Nations Peace Operations. World Bank Economic Review 22 (1):9–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sekhon, Jasjeet, and Titiunik, Rocio. 2012. When Natural Experiments Are Neither Natural nor Experiments. American Political Science Review 106 (1):35–57.Google Scholar
Sievers, Loraine, and Daws, Sam. 2014. The Procedure of the UN Security Council. Oxford Unversity Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Small, Dylan, Tan, Zhiqiang, Lorch, Scott, and Brookhart, Alan. 2014. Instrumental Variable Estimation When Compliance is Not Deterministic: The Stochastic Monotonicity Assumption. Working Paper.Google Scholar
Stock, James, and Yogo, Motohiro. 2005. Testing for Weak Instruments in Linear IV Regression. In Identification and Inference for Econometric Models: Essays in Honor of Thomas Rothenberg, edited by Andrews, Donald and Stock, James, 80–108. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. 2014. SIPRI Military Expenditure Database. SIPRI.Google Scholar
Stojek, Szymon, and Tir, Jaroslav. 2014. The Supply Side of United Nations Peacekeeping Operations: Trade Ties and United Nations-Led Deployments to Civil War States. European Journal of International Relations 21 (2):352–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sundberg, Ralph. 2008. Collective Violence 2002–2007: Global and Regional Trends. In States in Armed Conflict 2007, edited by Harbom, Lotta and Sundberg, Ralph 165–91. Universitetstryckeriet.Google Scholar
Sundberg, Ralph, and Melander, Erik. 2013. Introducing the UCDP Georeferenced Event Dataset. Journal of Peace Research 50 (4):523–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Themnér, Lotta, and Wallensteen, Peter. 2014. Armed Conflicts, 1946–2013. Journal of Peace Research 51 (4):541–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United Nations. 2001. Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations. United Nations.Google Scholar
United Nations. 2003. Handbook on United Nations Multidimensional Peacekeeping Operations. UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations.Google Scholar
United Nations. 2009. Report of the Secretary-General on Enhancing Mediation and Its Support Activities. United Nations.Google Scholar
Valentino, Benjamin. 2004. Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century. Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Valentino, Benjamin, Huth, Paul, and Balch-Lindsay, Dylan. 2004. “Draining the Sea”: Mass Killing and Guerrilla Warfare. International Organization 58 (2):375–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vivalt, Eva. 2015. Peacekeepers Help, Governments Hinder. Working Paper.Google Scholar
Voeten, Erik. 2014. Does Participation in International Organizations Increase Cooperation? Review of International Organizations 9:285–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vreeland, James, and Dreher, Axel. 2014. The Political Economy of the United Nations Security Council. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wood, Reed M. 2016. Intrastate Conflict and Civilian Victimization. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics.Google Scholar
Wood, Reed M., Kathman, Jacob, and Gent, Stephen. 2012. Armed Intervention and Civilian Victimization in Intrastate Conflicts. Journal of Peace Research 49 (5):647–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Bank. 2014. World Development Indicators. World Bank.Google Scholar
Ziemke, Jen. 2012. Turn and Burn: Loss Dynamics and Civilian Targeting in the Angolan War. Journal of Economics and Politics 20 (1):18–36.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Carnegie and Mikulaschek Supplementary Materials

Carnegie and Mikulaschek Supplementary Materials

Download Carnegie and Mikulaschek Supplementary Materials(PDF)
PDF 902 KB
Supplementary material: Link

Carnegie and Mikulaschek Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/XJP8WL
Link
10
Cited by

Save article to Kindle

To save this article to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

The Promise of Peacekeeping: Protecting Civilians in Civil Wars
Available formats
×

Save article to Dropbox

To save this article to your Dropbox account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Dropbox account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

The Promise of Peacekeeping: Protecting Civilians in Civil Wars
Available formats
×

Save article to Google Drive

To save this article to your Google Drive account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Google Drive account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

The Promise of Peacekeeping: Protecting Civilians in Civil Wars
Available formats
×
×

Reply to: Submit a response

Please enter your response.

Your details

Please enter a valid email address.

Conflicting interests

Do you have any conflicting interests? *