5 - Cross-national Evidence: UN Intervention and the Rule of Law across Africa

Summary

The UN is intimately involved in efforts to restore the rule of law in countries recovering from civil war. Have these efforts succeeded? This chapter provides a systematic, cross-national quantitative test of the relationship between UN missions and the rule of law across all post-conflict countries in Africa since the end of the Cold War. The chapter draws on original datasets gleaned from sources that have never been used for purposes of research. The chapter demonstrates a strong positive correlation between UN presence and the rule of law in the one- to three-year period after a peace agreement has been signed. The relationship is stronger for the UN's civilian personnel than for troops and military observers, and is stronger when the UN engages host government officials in the process of reform, rather than bypassing them entirely.