Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T08:25:35.007Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

On the Frontline Every Day? Subnational Deployment of United Nations Peacekeepers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2016

Andrea Ruggeri ,
Han Dorussen  and
Theodora-Ismene Gizelis
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

United Nations (UN) peacekeepers tend to be deployed to ‘hard-to-resolve’ civil wars. Much less is known about where peacekeepers are deployed within a country. However, to assess peacekeepers’ contribution to peace, it matters whether they are deployed to conflict or relatively safe areas. This article examines subnational UN peacekeeping deployment, contrasting an ‘instrumental’ logic of deployment versus a logic of ‘convenience’. These logics are evaluated using geographically and temporally disaggregated data on UN peacekeepers’ deployment in eight African countries between 1989 and 2006. The analysis demonstrates that peacekeepers are deployed on the frontline: they go where conflict occurs, but there is a notable delay in their deployment. Furthermore, peacekeepers tend to be deployed near major urban areas.

Type
Articles
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , October 2018 , pp. 1005 - 1025
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2016 

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.)

Footnotes

*

Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford (email: [email protected]); Department of Government, University of Essex (emails: [email protected], [email protected]). Previous versions were presented at the first EPSA meeting, Dublin, 16–18 June 2011 and at the annual ISA meeting, San Diego, CA, April 2012. The project was supported by funding of the Folke Bernadotte Academy, Sweden with special thanks to Birger Heldt. We thank Brian Burgoon, Giovanni Carbone, Paul Diehl, Robert Franzese, Erik Gartzke, Nils Weidmann and Andreas Tollefsen for their comments. We also thank the editor, Shaun Bowler, and nine anonymous reviewers for making this article better. Data replication sets are available at http://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataverse/BJPolS and online appendices are available at http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1017/S000712341600017X.

References

Andersson, Andreas. 2000. Democracies and UN Peacekeeping Operations, 1990–1996. International Peacekeeping 7 (2):1–22.Google Scholar
Autesserre, Séverine. 2010. The Trouble with the Congo Local Violence and the Failure of International Peacebuilding. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Barnett, Michael N. 1997. The UN Security Council, Indifference, and Genocide in Rwanda. Cultural Anthropology 12 (4):551–578.Google Scholar
Barnett, Micahel N., and Finnemore, Martha. 1999. The Politics, Power, and Pathologies of International Organizations. International Organization 53 (4):699–732.Google Scholar
Beardsley, Kyle, and Gleditsch, Kristian S.. 2015. Peacekeeping as Conflict Containment. International Studies Review 17 (1):67–89.Google Scholar
Beardsley, Kyle, and Schmidt, Holger. 2012. Following the Flag or Following the Charter?: Examining the Determinants of UN Involvement in International Crises, 1945–2002. International Studies Quarterly 56 (1):33–49.Google Scholar
Boulding, Kenneth E. 1962. Conflict and Defense. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Bove, Vincenzo, and Ruggeri, Andrea. 2015. Kinds of Blue: Diversity in UN Peacekeeping Missions and Civilian Protection. British Journal of Political Science, doi:10.1017/ S0007123415000034.Google Scholar
Buhaug, Halvard. 2010. Dude, Where’s My Conflict? LSG, Relative Strength, and the Location of Civil War. Conflict Management and Peace Science 27 (2):107–128.Google Scholar
Buhaug, Halvard, Cederman, Lars-Erik, and Rød, Jan K.. 2008. Disaggregating Ethno-Nationalist Civil Wars: A Dyadic Test of Exclusion Theory. International Organization 62 (3):531–551.Google Scholar
Buhaug, Halvard, Gates, Scott, and Lujala, Päivi. 2009. Geography, Rebel Capability, and the Duration of Civil Conflict. Journal of Conflict Resolution 53 (4):544–569.Google Scholar
Buhaug, Halvard, Gleditsch, Kristian S., Holtermann, Helge, Østby, Gudrun, and Tollefsen, Andreas F.. 2011. It’s the Local Economy, Stupid! Geographic Wealth Dispersion and Conflict Outbreak Location. Journal of Conflict Resolution 55 (5):814–840.Google Scholar
Carter, Timothy A. 2007. United Nations Intervention Decisions: A Strategic Examination. Working Paper, Department of Political Science, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI.Google Scholar
Cederman, Lars-Erik, Weidmann, Nils B., and Gleditsch, Kristian S.. 2011. Horizontal Inequalities and Ethno-Nationalist Civil War: A Global Comparison. American Political Science Review 105 (3):478–495.Google Scholar
Costalli, Stefano. 2014. Does Peacekeeping Work? A Disaggregated Analysis of Deployment and Violence Reduction in the Bosnian War. British Journal of Political Science 44 (2):357–380.Google Scholar
Cunliffe, Philip. 2009. The Politics of Global Governance in UN Peacekeeping. International Peacekeeping 16 (3):323–336.Google Scholar
de Jonge Oudraat, Chantal. 1996. The United Nations and Internal Conflict. In The International Dimensions of Internal Conflict, edited by Michael E. Brown, 489–535. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Dittrich Hallberg, Johan. 2012. PRIO Conflict Site 1989–2008: A Geo-Referenced Dataset on Armed Conflict. Conflict Management and Peace Science 29 (2):219–232.Google Scholar
Dorussen, Han, and Gizelis, Theodora-Ismene. 2013. Into the Lion’s Den: Local Responses to UN Peacekeeping. Journal of Peace Research 50 (6):693–708.Google Scholar
Dorussen, Han, and Ruggeri, Andrea. 2007. Introducing PKOLED: A Peacekeeping Operations Location and Event Dataset. Manuscript, University of Essex.Google Scholar
Doyle, Michael W., and Sambanis, Nicholas. 2006. Making War and Building Peace. United Nations Peace Operations. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Findlay, Trevor. 2002. The Use of Force in UN Peace Operations. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fortna, Virginia P. 2008. Does Peacekeeping Work?. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Howard, Lise Morjé. 2008. UN Peacekeeping in Civil Wars. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hultman, Lisa. 2013. UN Peace Operations and Protection of Civilians: Cheap Talk or Norm Implementation? Journal of Peace Research 50 (1):59–73.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):875–891.Google Scholar
Human Rights Watch. 2008. Killings in Kiwanja: The UN’s Inability to Protect Civilians. Human Rights Watch. Available from http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2008/12/11/killings-kiwanja?print, accessed 2 November 2010.Google Scholar
Gibbs, David N. 1997. Is Peacekeeping a New Form of Imperialism? International Peacekeeping 4 (1):122–128.Google Scholar
Gilligan, Michael, and Stedman, Stephen J.. 2003. Where Do Peacekeepers Go? International Studies Review 5 (4):37–54.Google Scholar
Jakobsen, Peter V. 1996. National Interest, Humanitarianism or CNN: What Triggers UN Peace Enforcement After the Cold War? Journal of Peace Research 33 (2):205–215.Google Scholar
Kahneman, Daniel, and Tversky, Amos. 1979. Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk. Econometrica 47 (2):263–291.Google Scholar
Kalyvas, Stathis N. 2006. The Logic of Violence in Civil War. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kalyvas, Stathis N. 2008. Promises and Pitfalls of an Emerging Research Program: The Microdynamics of Civil War. In Order, Conflict, and Violence, edited by Stathis N. Kalyvas, Ian Shapiro and Tarek Masoud, 397–421. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Karlsrud, John. 2013. Special Representatives of the Secretary-General as Norm Arbitrators? Understanding Bottom-Up Authority in UN Peacekeeping. Global Governance 19 (4):525–544.Google Scholar
Kathman, Jakob D. 2013. United Nations Peacekeeping Personnel Commitments, 1990–2011. Conflict Management and Peace Science 30 (5):532–549.Google Scholar
King, Gary, and Zeng, Langche. 2001. Logistic Regression in Rare Events Data. Political Analysis 9 (2):137–163.Google Scholar
Miguel, Edward, Satyanath, Shanker, and Sergenti, Ernest. 2004. Economic Shocks and Civil Conflict: An Instrumental Variables Approach. Journal of Political Economy 112 (4):725–753.Google Scholar
Nelson, Andrew. 2008. Travel Time to Major Cities: A Global Map of Accessibility. Brussels, Belgium: European Commission, Available from http://forobs.jrc.ec.europa.eu/products/gam/.Google Scholar
Olonisakin, Funmi. 2008. Peacekeeping in Sierra Leone: The Story of UNAMSIL. Boulder, CO and London: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Pouligny, Béatrice. 2006. Peace Operations Seen from Below: UN Missions and Local People. London: Kumerian Press.Google Scholar
Powers, Matthew, Reeder, Bryce W., and Townsen, Ashly Adam. 2015. Hot Spot Peacekeeping. International Studies Review 17:46–66.Google Scholar
Prodi, Romano. 2009. General Assembly/Security Council. A/64/359–S/2009/470. Available from http://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/RO%20S2009%20470.pdf, accessed 1 November 2015.Google Scholar
Raleigh, Clionadh, and Hegre, Håvard. 2009. Population Size, Concentration, and Civil War: A Geographically Disaggregated Analysis. Political Geography 28 (4):224–238.Google Scholar
Ruggeri, Andrea, Gizelis, Theodora-Ismene, and Dorussen, Han. 2013. Managing Mistrust: An Analysis of Cooperation with UN Peacekeeping in Africa. Journal of Conflict Resolution 57 (3):387–409.Google Scholar
Signorino, Curtis S., and Carter, David B.. 2010. Back to the Future: Modeling Time Dependence in Binary Data. Political Analysis 18 (3):271–292.Google Scholar
Starr, Harvey. 2005. Territory, Proximity, and Spatiality: The Geography of International Conflict. International Studies Review 7 (3):387–406.Google Scholar
Sundberg, Ralph, and Melander, Erik. 2013. Introducing the UCDP Georeferenced Event Dataset. Journal of Peace Research 50 (4):523–532.Google Scholar
Tollefsen, Andreas, Strand, Håvard, and Buhaug, Halvard. 2012. PRIO-GRID: A Unified Spatial Data Structure. Journal of Peace Research 49 (2):363–374.Google Scholar
Townsen, Ashly A., and Reeder, Bryce W.. 2014. Where Do Peacekeepers Go When They Go? Explaining the Spatial Heterogeneity of Peacekeeping Deployment. Journal of International Peacekeeping 18 (1-2):69–91.Google Scholar
Wallensteen, Peter, and Sollenberg, Margareta. 2001. Armed Conflict 1989–2000. Journal of Peace Research 38 (5):629–644.Google Scholar
Weidmann, Nils. 2009. Geography as Motivation and Opportunity Group Concentration and Ethnic Conflict. Journal of Conflict Resolution 53 (4):526–543.Google Scholar
Weidmann, Nils. 2013. The Higher the Better? The Limits of Analytical Resolution in Conflict Event Datasets. Cooperation and Conflict 48 (4):567–576.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Ruggeri et al. Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/EC0BKU
Link
Supplementary material: PDF

Ruggeri supplementary material

Appendix

Download Ruggeri supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 1.5 MB