Networks of Influence and Support in Peace Operations

United Nations (UN) peace operations are deployed to some of the most difficult environments in the world, charged with transforming war-torn states into countries that can sustain peace. Focusing on the effect of military peacekeepers, international peacekeeping scholarship has produced relatively consistent findings: the deployment of international peacekeepers, particularly in contexts where there is a comprehensive peace agreement, reduces the likelihood of civil war recurrence.

To examine the effect of this organizational diversity within peacebuilding operations on peace and security outcomes, the PIs create a new dataset of peacebuilding actors and their networks with one another. They also complement the dataset with in-depth case studies in three countries. The project has several broader impacts: (1) it contributes to an improved understanding of the aid-conflict relationship, supporting better aid policy and having an important impact on US national security policy, (2) it increases diversity in international relations scholarship by including graduate and undergraduate research assistants from underrepresented populations, and (3) it disseminates findings through two workshops to a network of international donors and intergovernmental organizations.

The PIs identify the intervening international actors involved in contemporary UN peace operations, as well as the connections between these actors that are likely shape the success and failure of peace operation objectives. The PIs use these "networks of influence and support" to examine how the broader set of actors involved in peacebuilding activities affects important outcomes for human security in conflict-affected states.

Using a mixed methods approach (qualitative case studies, social network and large-N quantitative analysis) the PIs create a new dataset on the presence and formal connections between UN entities, INGOs, bilateral and multilateral donors, perform three detailed case studies with semi-structured interviews donors and INGO, and analyze secondary source information. The findings from this research contributes to the literature on civil war interventions, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding by accounting for the heterogeneity of actors involved in international peacekeeping and peacebuilding efforts.

Furthermore, the PIs contributes to how these networks among them and with domestic actors in the host country influence peace and security outcomes. This fine-grained, actor-focused analysis will enable the peacekeeping and peacebuilding literature to engage with the increasingly actor-centric scholarship on dynamics of civil wars.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.