Peacekeeping in the Midst of War

Description

Civil wars have caused tremendous human suffering in the last century, and the United Nations is often asked to send peacekeepers to stop ongoing violence. Yet despite being the most visible tool of international intervention, policymakers and scholars have little systematic knowledge about how well peacekeeping works. Peacekeeping in the Midst of War offers the most comprehensive analyses of peacekeeping on civil war violence to date. With unique data on different types of violence in civil wars around the world, Peacekeeping in the Midst of War offers a rigorous understanding of UN intervention by analysing both wars with and without UN peacekeeping efforts. It also directly measures the strength of UN missions in personnel capacity and constitution. Using large-n quantitative analyses, the book finds that UN peacekeeping missions with appropriately constituted force capacities mitigate violence in civil wars. The authors conclude by analyzing the broader context of UN intervention effectiveness, and conclude that peacekeeping is a more generally effective way to reduce the human suffering associated with civil war.

About the Author

Lisa Hultman is Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University. She conducts research on issues relating to civil war, violence against civilians, and international interventions. Her current research is funded by a Wallenberg Academy Fellow grant and a consolidator grant from the Swedish Research Council. Her publications appear in International Organization, Journal of Politics, American Political Science Review, and American Journal of Political Science amongst others.

Jacob Kathman is an Associate Professor in the Political Science Department at SUNY Buffalo. He received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and previously worked as an assistant professor at the University of Mississippi. His research focuses on United Nations peacekeeping, civil war, civilian victimization, and associated phenomena. His work has been published in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, and the British Journal of Political Science among other outlets. His teaching interests include the topics above and various subjects in international relations and comparative politics.

Megan Shannon is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research studies how international institutions influence human and interstate security. Her work has been published in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, and Journal of Politics. She has received funding for her research from the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at Notre Dame and the Folke Bernadotte Academy of Sweden.

Reviews

"Hultman, Kathman, and Shannon extend and sharpen our understanding of peacekeeping effectiveness thanks to this innovative book. Their bargaining theoretical framework highlights mechanisms of peacekeeping that can mitigate incomplete information and commitment problems among belligerents. They systematically and convincingly show that the capacity of a peace operation - deployment size - and its constitution - type of personnel - are crucial factors to shape conflict dynamics between combatants and saving civilians lives. This book is a crystalline example of careful and relevant research. Peacekeeping in the Midst of War will become a reference point for scholars and, I truly hope, for policymakers working on peace operations and conflict resolution." - Andrea Ruggeri, Professor of Political Science and International Relations, University of Oxford

"This work produces new findings that change the way we think about peacekeeping. It makes a strong case that increasing force capacity can lead to fewer civilian deaths. The authors also demonstrate that the composition of the peace operation (troops, observers, civilian police) influences outcomes; most previous research ignored this distinction. The book is as strong theoretically as it is empirically, with the latter relying on advanced data analysis and compelling case illustrations." - Paul F. Diehl, Ashbel Smith Professor of Political Science, University of Texas at Dallas

"Hultman, Kathman, and Shannon provide the most comprehensive analysis, to date, of the extent to which peacekeeping operations mitigate violence. Readers will find both an understanding of how peacekeeping operations can effectively reduce the scourge of war across the globe and an understanding that peacekeepers face real limitations in bringing peace to the toughest conflicts of our time." - Kyle Beardsley, Professor of Political Science, Duke University

Table of contents

1: Peacekeeping and the Problem of Civil War
2: Measuring Peacekeeping Effectiveness
3: Mechanisms of Peacekeeping Effectiveness
4: Reducing Battlefield Violence
5: Reducing Violence against Civilians
6: Successes and Failures in Côte d'Ivoire and The Democratic Republic of Congo
7: Saving Humanity from Hell?