Where do peacekeepers go? Unpacking the determinants of UNSC-authorized peace operation deployments
Where do peacekeepers go? A common assumption in the quantitative study of peace operations is that that peacekeepers are most likely to be sent to difficult-to-resolve conflicts. However, a closer look at the literature reveals that our knowledge on this issue is far from conclusive. Although we kn...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | Engish |
| Published: |
2023
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| Summary: | Where do peacekeepers go? A common assumption in the quantitative study of peace operations is that that peacekeepers are most likely to be sent to difficult-to-resolve conflicts. However, a closer look at the literature reveals that our knowledge on this issue is far from conclusive. Although we know that deployment is not random, we have yet to confidently identify the factors that drive this selection process. The present thesis revisits the question of where peacekeepers go. The starting point of the theoretical and empirical inquiry is the very beginning of the United Nation Security Council’s (UNSC) decision-making process. The first paper develops and statistically tests a novel theory on the role that interests of peacekeeping troop contributing countries can play in formal UNSC agenda-setting. The second paper explores the relation between the quality of the UNSC debates following agenda-setting and the time it takes the Council to authorize a first UN or non-UN peace operation to manage a civil conflict. The third paper presents novel time-varying data on 49 different mandate components of all UN and non-UN peace operations deployed to Sub-Saharan Africa between 1990 and 2019. This approach yields important insights on the role that interests from actors other than the fifteen Council members play in relation to where peacekeepers might eventually get sent. Furthermore, the empirical evidence presented in this thesis indicates that only certain conflict characteristics and attributes of the country experiencing civil strife play a role for the non-random assignment of UNSC-authorized peace operations. |
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