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Do UN missions reduce forced displacement? Facing insecure environments, civilians are left with three choices: staying; moving to a safer community; or moving outside their country. Their aspiration and ability to move depend on individual characteristics and macro-level factors, such as the social, economic and political context in which these people live. Research shows that UN missions can impact and reset the macro-level context altered by war, especially in the security and economic domain. However, we lack empirical evidence on whether this impact helps UN peacekeeping tackle forced displacement and returns. This article offers the first global analysis of whether and how UN missions can shape aggregate population movements during civil wars. We combine data on outflows and returns of refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) with data on distinct UN missions' features that we expect to affect population movements, namely the size of their contingents and their mandated tasks. Using matched samples, we find that the unfolding of the outflows and inflows processes are affected by different features of UN missions. Sizeable deployments decrease IDPs flows and encourage their return; refugee outflows, on the other hand, may increase in presence of UN missions. Furthermore, missions with displacement-related mandates are associated with decreasing IDP flows overall, but only encourage refugees' returns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Democratic Republic of Congo hosts the longest-running and largest United Nations peacekeeping mission in history. The United Nations also has reckoned with sexual exploitation and abuse in its own ranks and, in 2003, recognized its importance with a Bulletin which became known as the 'zero tolerance policy'. Policymakers and researchers have paid little sustained attention, however, to children fathered by peacekeepers. In this article, we share the results of our mixed-methods SenseMaker® research with community members who interact with peacekeeping personnel and interviews with 58 women who are raising children fathered by peacekeepers. Despite the United Nations policies in place, most women did not report children fathered by peacekeepers and did not receive systematic support. The analysis reveals a large gap between the aspirations of the 'zero tolerance policy' and its operationalization in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We uncovered deep poverty and insecurity as both driving and resulting from women's sexual encounters with peacekeepers, with support needs largely unmet. We argue that there is a lack of enforcement of the United Nations policies, jurisdictional complexity and inaccessible justice, as well as significant gaps between the United Nations' approach to investigating and supporting children fathered by peacekeepers and the expectations of mothers, resulting in worsened life conditions for mothers and their children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the return to democracy in Argentina, the definition of new roles and missions for the armed forces became imperative in order to establish civilian authority over the military and contribute to the consolidation of the democratic regime. After seven years of military dictatorship (1976–1983), the transformation of repressive and war-prone armed forces into law-abiding and peaceful ones was needed to achieve three key political goals: To strengthen the newly restored yet weak rule of law, to rebuild the country's battered international image, and to help professionalise an ill-reputed military. This article argues that since the return to democracy in 1983, successive governments have pursued these goals by linking issues traditionally falling within the military and security realm to the country's external agenda. Building upon the defence diplomacy literature – that is, the use of defence and military cooperation as a diplomatic tool – the article develops a conceptual framework to apply to the Argentine case, focussing on how defence diplomacy is developed in three stages which we conceptualise as inward-looking, outward-looking, and symmetrical military-to-military relations. Overall, we contend that defence diplomacy – though still a recent and weakly systematised concept in the field – is a useful tool which should be taken into account when analysing the democratic transitions and the pursued civilian control over the armed forces in Global South countries like Argentina. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commitment problems and information asymmetries represent key impediments to peacekeeping. We posit that mass media—more specifically, United Nations (UN) peacekeeping radio broadcasts—is a cost-effective, easily implemented method of addressing common roadblocks to conflict resolution. We analyze monthly battle-related deaths across 51 UN peacekeeping missions during the years 1992–2014. Using negative binomial models with two-way fixed effects, we find that peaceful UN radio broadcasts are associated with decreased conflict intensity. We argue that radio-based, mass communication is particularly effective owing to the socio-economic conditions within conflict zones; these properties include severe under-development and lack of access to modern technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractRecent studies have shown that United Nations (UN) peacekeepers are deployed to active conflict zones and are effective in reducing violence against civilians and between armed actors. Yet, while existing research has explored where peacekeepers are initially deployed, we know less about where peacekeepers patrol after deployment in which existing evidence remains largely anecdotal. We contend that UN peacekeeping patrols are generally conducted in areas where they are most needed in areas of armed violence and where civilians are targeted as UN peacekeepers are mandated to anticipate and respond to violence. We assess this argument using unique, geocoded mission report data compiled by the Joint Mission Analysis Center (JMAC) on UNAMID patrols across Darfur between January 2008 and April 2009. We find that, while UN patrols often stayed closer to the base, many patrols did venture far from base into the “sea of instability,” in locations with armed clashes and civilian violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) to post-conflict countries is difficult. After conflict ends, governments struggle to perfectly enforce the institutions which otherwise shield investors from political instability. Reflecting this governance problem, this article presents a new explanation linking United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations to subnational allocations of FDI in post-conflict countries. I specifically argue that deployments of UN peacekeeping police credibly signal to foreign firms where future political instability is least likely to disrupt their operations. Data from Liberia's extractive sector support my argument. Increasing the local deployment of UN police encourages foreign firms to establish new natural resource concessions, particularly in areas where the government's capacity to uphold the rule of law is weak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the end of the Cold War, the United Nations has increasingly used peacekeeping operations (PKOs) to manage crises between and within states. The mandates of contemporary PKOs are demanding, calling on peacekeeping personnel to separate belligerent parties, enforce ceasefire agreements, and protect the physical security of civilians. The pursuit of these distinct objectives presents a unique challenge for the UN because it relies on member states to volunteer personnel for these missions. Therefore, the achievement of mandated goals depends on the ability of diverse national contingents to overcome coordination problems and function as a cohesive force. Integrating research of PKOs and international military coalitions, we argue that as national contingents share operational experience within a UN mission, they develop common institutional practices, and become more effective at protecting the civilian population. Using monthly data on UN PKOs from 1990 to 2019, we find that increasing operational experience within a peacekeeping coalition reduces civilian fatalities significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do United Nations peacekeeping operations improve the security of humanitarian aid workers during conflict? Answering this question is important given the critical assistance that humanitarian personnel provide in conflict zones, the increased integration of humanitarian activities in UN operations in recent decades and the growing incidence of attacks against aid workers worldwide. Researchers have found that the presence of peacekeepers does not positively affect aid worker security and may even make humanitarian personnel more vulnerable to violent attacks. However, previous studies have not examined whether the effect of peacekeeping operations on aid worker security is influenced by the personnel composition of UN missions. I hypothesize that operations with more troops are likely to reduce attacks against aid workers, while similar security gains are unlikely to be realized with larger numbers of police or observers. This is due to troops' specific capabilities, which increase their ability to mitigate high-intensity conflict environments and protect humanitarian personnel traveling on roads. Statistical analyses of monthly data between 2000 and 2015 indicate that greater numbers of UN troops, but not police and observers, are correlated with fewer attacks against aid workers. The implications of these findings are discussed, with an eye toward addressing challenges facing the UN's force-generation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Challenging the Narrative: Documentary Film as Participatory Practice in Conflict Situations" by Cahal McLaughlin is a book that explores the use of participatory practices in documentary filmmaking in conflict settings. The book focuses on McLaughlin's own experiences in conflict areas such as the North of Ireland/Northern Ireland, Haiti, Brazil, and South Africa. McLaughlin emphasizes the importance of collaboration, inclusivity, trauma sensitivity, and efforts to mitigate power differentials in these projects. The book provides case studies of McLaughlin's methodology, highlighting the benefits for both filmmakers and participants. Overall, the book offers a valuable analysis of participatory practices in documentary filmmaking and their potential for political and social change. [Extracted from the article]

In the last decade, the use of indicators to track implementation of international peacebuilding and peacekeeping programmes, policies and practices has proliferated. Indicators are criticised by many scholars for their technocratic, standardised and colonialising effects. This article follows a different line of inquiry. Can indicators be transformative? Contemporary critiques place indicators as bureaucratic artefacts in a vacuum, detached and decontextualised from the nuances of human agency developing, utilising and subverting them. I conceptualise indicators as powerful gendered technologies of knowledge creation developed, used and subverted by institutional actors. Using interviews with institutional actors and United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Reports, I trace institutional stories of one indicator (out of 26) developed to capture implementation of the UN Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda. The indicator investigated tracks the number of senior gender experts employed within UN Peacekeeping and Special Political Missions. Stories of progress, skill, and location in the reporting of this indicator between 2010 and 2020 highlight strategies deployed and opportunities taken by feminist-change advocates within the UN to prompt a deeper implementation of the WPS agenda. While indicators hold the danger of reinforcing neoliberal norms, the failure to conceptualise the potential for developing, utilising and/or subverting the indicators smacks of hubris, limiting opportunities for meaningful transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations (PKOs) typically give scant attention to an important aspect of host states' development: their external affairs. This article identifies ways in which UN PKOs can shape the external affairs of host states, focusing on UN peacekeeping in the post-Cold War period. We present the findings of a quantitative content analysis of key UN peacekeeping documents to establish which aspects of host state external affairs have been of concern to the UN. We then provide a conceptual framework that maps three areas of external affairs in which PKOs are particularly influential: relationship-building; institution- and diplomatic capacity-building; and the shaping of policy in domains of external affairs. We identify three pathways through which PKOs shape the external affairs of host states: mandated roles, improvised actions, and unintended consequences. Drawing on documentary analysis and original interview data, we illustrate our conceptual framework through an exploration of the impact of peacekeeping on the external affairs of two countries that have hosted large-scale UN-led peacekeeping missions in recent decades: Timor-Leste (East Timor) and Liberia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an expanded analysis of NATO security burden sharing by including a variety of conglomerate security terms that involve subsets of military expenditure (ME), UN and non‐UN peacekeeping contributions, global health spending, UN environmental support, and official development assistance. In so doing, we identify components of security spending that promote or inhibit free riding on allies' security spillovers. Additionally, we examine security burden sharing when the NATO alliance is conceptually augmented to include three key Asia‐Pacific allies – Australia, Japan, and the Republic of Korea. The paper's statistical tests for security burden sharing rely on spatial‐lag panel models that account for ally connectiveness based on alliance membership, contiguity and US power projection, and allies' relative locations. Security subsets containing ME display robust free riding or reliance on other allies' security spillovers, while security subsets not containing ME indicate allies responding positively to security spillovers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to identify the factors underlying the success of peace negotiations in Africa, with particular emphasis on the role of UN peacekeepers. We analyze African Peace Processes (APP) data over the period 1989–2019 using the binary logistic model. Our results show that the deployment of UN peacekeepers is associated with the success of mediation efforts, both in intra-state and non-state conflicts. On the other hand, the presence of peacekeepers is detrimental to the success of bilateral negotiations. These results thus highlight that the ambiguity surrounding the effectiveness of UN forces in the peaceful management of conflicts depends on the presence or absence of a mediator. Consequently, political decision-makers should combine the deployment of peacekeeping forces with mediation initiatives to achieve peaceful conflict management. On the other hand, this should not be envisaged within the framework of bilateral negotiations, at the risk of producing opposite effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2010 Operational Concept for the Protection of Civilians (POC) has formalized the United Nations (UN) protection strategies into a three-tier structure: protection through dialogue and engagement (Tier 1), physical protection (Tier 2) and the establishment of a protective environment (Tier 3). Using a Naïve Bayes algorithm to classify 1,118 protection references in Security Council and General Assembly resolutions between 1990 and 2019, this article first systematically evaluates the impact of this policy. Has the three-tier approach shifted the traditional focus away from physical protection? Has the post-2010 period witnessed a surge in the prominence of holistic and long-term POC strategies? The findings reveal a notable increase in the frequency of protection mentions following the introduction of the Operational Concept. However, even in the final years of the observation period and in the context of five multi-dimensional peacekeeping operations, references to the physical protection cluster (Tier 2) outnumber mentions of Tiers 1 and 3. These findings hold policy relevance, as they stress the United Nations' difficulty in integrating the diverse protection approaches outlined in the three-tier structure of the Operational Concept into a cohesive strategy [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the differences in experiences between female and male police officers deployed in United Nations peacekeeping missions. In the last decade, the United Nations Police (UNPOL) have pushed to increase the percentage of female officers deployed to peacekeeping missions. These UNPOL officers are at the forefront of post-conflict police reform. Police reforms can have a serious impact on how females are treated in UNPOL and in the host nation. UNPOL officers face various challenges, including difficulties transitioning into a multicultural environment and the physical dangers they must circumvent in a peacekeeping mission. The differences between male and female officers are discussed to provide insight into the impact of the missions and the policy implications to improve the effectiveness and efficacy of the missions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civil-military cooperation (CIMIC) has officially emerged as a coordinated strategy between the United Nations peacekeeping missions and humanitarian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to enable access to people in need of assistance in complex emergencies. However, this integrated approach raises serious concerns regarding the respect of traditional principles of humanitarian action: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence. While some humanitarian NGOs are opposed to any form of collaboration with the military, others believe this cooperation is very important to enable access and provide aid to civilians in needs. Using the case study of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), this article analyses the impact of the CIMIC integrated approach between the United Nations Peacekeeping and Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) and humanitarian NGOs on the afore-mentioned principles of humanitarian action. It argues that most humanitarian NGOs that are operating in the Eastern DRC are opposed to the CIMIC’s integrated approach as it pushes them to violate the principles of neutrality, independence, and impartiality. Second, CIMIC increases the danger of humanitarian workers to be targeted by illegal armed groups. Third, despite their integrated approach, both MONUSCO and humanitarian actors have not been able to pacify the Eastern DRC, end the humanitarian needs of the population, or improve their effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peacekeeping has been used as a significanttool for the past six decades in solving crises that are dangerous to peace and security at the international level. Over the years the missions regarding peacekeeping have not only grown in size but have also seen an increase in complexity. A lot of personnel including police, military, civilians, and others deployed in United Nations peacekeeping operations around the world have reached unprecedented levels since the commencement of the latest millennium. When the peacekeeping missions began, they were largely governed by the body of principles that was unwritten and were more affected by the events people went through while working for decades rather than any specific statute. The conservation of global safety and tranquility was the main objective behind the formationof the United Nations. The main tool to achieve thisobjective is the process of peacekeeping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While International Relations scholarship has increasingly addressed questions of race, the literature on international organizations (IOs) has been slower to do so. In particular, it has neglected how race functions within IO workforces. Building on sociological theories of racialized organizations, we develop the concept of racialized IOs. Like domestic organizations, racialized IOs are characterized by enhanced or inhibited agency of racial groups, racialized distribution of resources, credentialing of whiteness, and decoupling of formal rules and informal practices along racial lines. However, there are also two important differences. First, since IOs rely on member states for resources, their secretariats need to accommodate powerful white-majority countries (macro-level pressures). Second, since IO workforces are diverse, their employees may bring a range of racial stereotypes that exist in their societies into their professional practice (micro-level pressures). Using the case of UN peacekeeping, we demonstrate how the four features of racialized organizations operate in light of these macro- and micro-level pressures. We show that locally hired peacekeeping staff face constraints on exercising agency; that non-white peacekeepers perform more dangerous jobs than their white counterparts; that whiteness serves as a proxy for desirable skills while non-white peacekeepers' knowledge is devalued; and that peacekeepers from white-majority countries receive special treatment or deviate from UN-wide procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Unlike traumatic rupture of the spleen, which is the most common consequence of blunt abdominal trauma and is well documented in the literature, and unlike the atraumatic rupture of the spleen, which is less common but also well described, spontaneous rupture of the spleen in a patient with malaria is a rare complication, with a potentially fatal outcome. Case report. A soldier aged 46 years, was hospitalized, with the clinical picture of abdominal colic and diarrhea, previously treated for a primary attack of acute malaria. During hospitalization, deterioration of health condition occurred, with the development of a clinical picture of an acute abdomen due to spontaneous rupture of the spleen which was successfully resolved by splenectomy. Conclusion. Splenectomy is the method of choice for patients with unstable clinical presentation due to atraumatic rupture of the spleen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

UN peacekeeping operations rely on international cooperation to constitute competitive female peacekeepers. Meanwhile, Indonesia is an active contributor to global peace, yet its women peacekeepers dealt with linguistic challenges to participate in peacekeeping missions in French-speaking countries. This article investigates the exhaustive intellectual and physical performances of a policewoman from Banda Aceh to take part in the MINUSCA ( United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic) 2020-2021. This paper aims to illustrate the theory of feminism by using a descriptive qualitative analysis. In UN peacekeeping missions, having female peacekeepers is crucial for ensuring gender-balanced representation. This study describes how the determinism of the female gender through personal commitment, self-engagement, and motivation is as valuable as the male gender. The data are collected via recorded Zoom meetings. The findings revealed the components of French language proficiency for MINUSCA, learning activities, the Indonesian policewoman’s experiences in learning French, and French language teaching andlearning issues that needed to be addressed in Banda Aceh. In addition, this article underlines factual issues on the absence of an official French language academy in Banda Aceh. Addressing those issues will contribute to maximizing Indonesian human resources for global peace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chin-Hao Huang's book, "Power and Restraint in China's Rise," challenges conventional narratives about China, ASEAN, and US strategy in Asia. Huang argues that China's use of coercive military power is variable and contingent, and that its restraint is closely tied to a strong ASEAN consensus. He also finds that times of Chinese restraint are not linked to US deterrence actions, but rather to the strength of ASEAN's response to China's actions. Huang's analysis offers new insights into the motivations and behavior of China as a strategic actor, highlighting the importance of regional consensus and norms. [Extracted from the article]

The article explores Japan's quasi-alliance strategy, which falls between alliance and neutrality in its national security strategy. Japan has formed quasi-alliances with countries like India, Australia, major European powers, and ASEAN countries, focusing on security cooperation while respecting sovereignty. Japan has pursued value-based diplomacy to establish shared identities and top-level designs for its quasi-alliances. The strategy is motivated by adjustments in the US alliance system, changes in Japan's alliance management, and the desire to counterbalance China. While the strategy has expanded Japan's security influence and deepened its alliance with the US, it has also intensified bloc-based confrontation and faces constraints such as strategic differences among quasi-allies and budget limitations. [Extracted from the article]

This article discusses the end of the Cold War in Southern Africa and its impact on the Apartheid Government's nuclear weapons program. The program was developed as a strategic deterrent against perceived communist threats in the region. However, with the changing political landscape, including the end of hostilities in Angola and the rise of progressive leaders like FW de Klerk, the program was deemed unnecessary and a burden. In 1989, de Klerk ordered the termination of the program and the dismantling of the nuclear arsenal. This decision, along with South Africa's subsequent commitment to nuclear non-proliferation, played a significant role in the country's transition to democracy and its emergence as a leader in promoting disarmament. [Extracted from the article]

China shows a growing commitment to peacemaking and peacekeeping overseas. Yet Chinese peace efforts have met considerable challenges across multiple conflict settings. This article seeks to understand the difficulties facing Chinese peacemaking and peacekeeping and asks how these experiences influence the future behaviour of Chinese actors towards peace and conflict issues. Previous scholarship has largely taken a state-centric perspective to explain China's engagement in peacemaking and peacekeeping. In contrast, this article harnesses an assemblage approach to reveal the diversity of Chinese actors and the significant role local actors and normative forms of power play in influencing China's broader peace efforts. In South Sudan, it finds that the political ideas advanced by warring factions and the legitimacy they placed on United Nations peacekeeping intervention, both undermined Chinese peacemaking and peacekeeping and held far-reaching effects for Chinese actors beyond the conflict. Consequently, these challenges in South Sudan pushed China's national oil company to adopt new risk management policies throughout its investments in conflict settings. The South Sudan experience also influenced China's foreign ministry by tempering its proactive approach to conflict resolution in other conflict-affected countries and to promote peacekeeper safety and support peacekeeping intelligence at the United Nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH, 2004–2017) was an unprecedented effort of Latin American peacekeeping. Nine countries contributed the majority of troops to the mission in which regional governments sought to handle a security crisis in their neighbourhood rather than leaving the lead to western countries. However, when the mission came to an end after thirteen years, peacekeeping faded from the regional and national security agendas, with the exception of Uruguay. How and why did MINUSTAH impact the region's current hesitation to engage in peace operations? To answer this question, the article draws on assemblage theory and uses data from policy documents, academic literature and previous research on peacekeeping in Latin America. I argue that contrary to what Latin America's current, limited peacekeeping engagement suggests, MINUSTAH produced significant changes in the region's political landscape. While these could have paved the way to greater involvement in peace operations, however, parallel developments shaped Latin American security policies and military planning at the expense of the region's future participation in UN peacekeeping. The article adds to existing scholarship by probing the conditions that drive the temporality of assemblages and provides a new perspective on Latin American peacekeeping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the evolution of intelligence in United Nations peacekeeping through a practice-based assemblage lens. We address a gap in the literature by transcending the focus on 'peacekeeping intelligence' as merely an evolving policy instrument. Instead, we employ an 'analytic of assemblage' that reveals the intrinsic ambiguity of both the concept of peacekeeping intelligence, and the related competing perspectives as well as forms of expertise among stakeholders. We select the United Nations Operation in the Congo (ONUC, 1960–1964), the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH, 2004–2017), and the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA, 2013–2023) as cases to reconstruct the historical evolution of intelligence within peacekeeping. Our analysis reveals profound tensions between efforts to transform intelligence for broader goals like the protection of civilians, on the one hand, and the persistent dominance of military knowledge and tactical priorities in its implementation, on the other. We convey the enduring predominance of military priorities shaping intelligence practices across spatio-temporal contexts, grounded in historical legacies of doctrinal developments, training and regional collaborations. The analysis thereby highlights the interplay between contingency and the influence of enduring power structures in shaping the evolving peacekeeping assemblage. This offers a perspective that links assemblage approaches with the analysis of not only emergence but also path dependency influenced by historical and geopolitical contexts and suggests that strengthening such analytical link holds wider potential for advancing contributions of assemblage approaches to critical security studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What shifts in the extent and patterns of China's blaming are observable at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)? This article employs automated content analysis to measure the frequency of blaming by China and other permanent UNSC member states based on a dataset of all speeches (19,623 overall) in the UNSC from January 1995 to May 2022. Furthermore, it uses qualitative text analysis and network analysis to examine the targets of blaming in three different case studies of UN security governance—UN peacekeeping in former Yugoslavia (1998–2008), the UN sanctions regime against North Korea (2007–2017) and the broader peace and security discourse at the UNSC (2008–2018). The study conceptualizes Chinese blaming as a previously unexamined discursive strategy of compulsory power with potential long‐term effects on shifts in productive power. However, the results indicate the absence of blaming‐related shifts in the discursive space of the UNSC: China's rhetoric in the UNSC, compared with other UNSC members, has remained restrained over time. Variance in blaming behaviour between actors and across bilateral and multilateral settings seems to depend on strategic considerations that assess how to exert power most effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to much of the extant literature, the paper devises a composite security burden measure for the NATO alliance that accounts for three different contributions by allies to their collective security: namely, military expenditure (ME), foreign assistance, and UN peacekeeping spending. Generally, NATO defense burden sharing and free riding are judged solely based on ME even though foreign assistance and peacekeeping promote world prosperity, stabilize regimes, and quell conflicts that affect NATO's collective security. Our parametric tests for free riding apply a spatial-lag panel model, which addresses the interdependency issues, to a broader security-spending measure that accounts for allies' membership, contiguity, and inverse distance. In all spatial models, we uncover robust evidence of free riding where allies decrease their aggregate security spending in response to increases in the collective security spending of other allies. We apply a panel generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator to adjust for endogeneity concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"The War That Doesn't Say Its Name: The Unending Conflict in the Congo" by Jason K. Stearns provides a comprehensive analysis of the ongoing violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Drawing on extensive research and interviews, Stearns challenges the prevailing narrative of inevitability and defeatism surrounding the conflict. He argues that the persistence of violence is driven by a complex interplay of factors, including the emergence of a "military bourgeoisie" for whom war has become a lifestyle, the normalization of violence, and the apathy of the international community. The book also examines the interests and motivations of various armed groups and the complicity of the international donor and peacebuilding community in perpetuating the conflict. Stearns concludes by highlighting the stories of individuals who are working towards a different kind of politics in the Congo. [Extracted from the article]

Civil wars are complex in ways that challenge effective resolution. Civil war actors tend to be dynamic in nature and often splinter then coalesce over time potentially evolving into multiple dyads pitted against their government. Previous work has demonstrated that when multiple rebel factions emerge, civil wars tend to be longer in duration as satisfying multiple factions tends to be more challenging. However, governments may choose to pursue dyadic agreements hoping to end the conflict either through subsequent dyadic negotiations or through more targeted military tactics focusing intently on the remaining faction(s). This study suggests that which dyads will be excluded from the peace is predictable, but also seeks to better understand what happens to those excluded factions that hedge their bets to continue the fight. Propositions are tested on all civil war peace agreements between 1945-2013. Key findings indicate the importance of political power-sharing provision and third-party assistance in bringing excluded groups into the fold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The text discusses two recent books that examine the rise of stabilization in UN peacekeeping and international interventions. The first book, "Stabilization and Human Security in UN Peace Operations" by Alexander Gilder, explores how UN peacekeeping can provide a holistic approach to ending armed conflicts and building peace. Gilder argues that while some peacekeeping practices align with a human security approach, the focus on stabilization and increased militarization often undermines this approach. The second book, "Stabilization as the New Normal in International Interventions: Low Expectations?" edited by Roberto Belloni and Francesco N. Moro, provides a broader analysis of stabilization across various actors and locations. The book highlights the negative implications of stabilization, such as its security-focused nature and retreat from human rights and democracy. Overall, both books offer critical appraisals of stabilization interventions and raise important questions about its effectiveness and future use. [Extracted from the article]

This article argues that positive US-China relations enabled China in 2004 to diversify its strategy toward Haiti, a staunch supporter of Taiwan, by contributing its first-ever Formed Police Unit (FPU) to the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). The organizational readiness of the China Peacekeeping Police Training Center (CPPTC) also played a large role in shaping this development. With the contribution of its FPUs, China intended to influence Haiti and reset bilateral relations. However, the limited training capacity of CPPTC meant that China could only contribute one FPU at a time—even though contributing more FPUs would have strengthened its influence on Haiti even more. When US-China relations turned negative and Zhou Yongkang, the chief patron of the Chinese police, lost power in 2012, China terminated its participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines China’s increasing security interests in Africa. It seeks to understand the nature and scope of Chinese engagement in peace and security issues on the continent based on its engagement in international and domestic (African) politics. Through literature analysis and logical reasoning, the author intends to define the implications of China’s new role as a security provider. The paper is based on desk research using primary and secondary data and statistical and comparative analysis of official documents, academic research, and media sources. The methods include literature analysis, logical reasoning, statistical research, comparative analysis, and the inductive method to build general theorems. The paper analyses aspects of China’s security engagement on the African continent: its participation in the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations, small arms exports, and Beijing’s sharing of technology with African partners. China’s engagement in Africa’s security helps to advance its vital economic and political interests, with limited impact on African security. Key lessons for African partners are offered. The last decades have seen an extraordinary increase in China’s economic and political ties with Africa. Security cooperation followed massive Chinese investments and thousands of Chinese nationals working on the continent. China’s security engagement in Africa protects Beijing’s interests regarding access to resources, markets, political influence, and social credibility. It has little to do with a benevolent will to help Africa deal with instability or economic underdevelopment. African partners must make necessary efforts to avoid further dependence on China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the shift in international approaches to civilian protection in the 1990s and 2000s, moving from a "top-down" approach to a more "bottom-up" approach. The authors highlight the importance of understanding and supporting civilian self-protection strategies in conflict settings. The article also discusses the challenges and complexities of civilian agency and protection, including the involvement of armed civilian groups and the need for a nuanced understanding of civilians' actions. The authors emphasize the need for further research and a design-based approach to studying civilian protective agency. [Extracted from the article]

The protection of civilians has moved from the periphery to the core of public perceptions of what UN peacekeeping is for. At the same time, the operational and tactical arts of civilian protection have become better developed, more sophisticated, and more widely known. This turn towards protection has improved UN peacekeeping and, more importantly, saved civilian lives. This piece shows that together, the essays in this collection suggest a need to think more holistically about by situating practices of UN peacekeeping along a broader continuum of practice comprising local actors, unarmed civilian protectors at one end, a more fulsome understanding of the role of UN police and national authorities in the middle, and – at the other end – difficult questions about humanitarian intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces a Special Issue on the Protection of Civilians (PoC) efforts in United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations. The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1265 in February 1999, laying the basis for PoC becoming a fundamental part of UN peacekeeping. On the 25th anniversary of this resolution, it's time to reflect on the various advances, achievements and challenges facing the UN's PoC agenda. This introduction to the Special Issue outlines the UN's three-tiered PoC approach: dialogue and engagement, physical protection, and creating a protective environment. Building on this foundation, the Special Issue explores diverse topics, including pre-deployment training, unarmed peacekeeping, host-state consent, military and police roles in protection, the use of force by troops, civilian protection sites in South Sudan, and the unintended effects of peacekeeping missions. Each article contributes insights across the three PoC tiers bringing together cutting edge insights from leading academics and practitioners in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how host-state consent affects the implementation of different sets of Protection of Civilians (POC) activities. Given the centrality of POC to UN peacekeeping, it is therefore important to understand the factors impacting its implementation. We argue that effectively conducting POC-activities – including supporting state capacity-building, human rights reporting, physical protection, and supporting dialogue – hinges on host-state consent. Based on an analysis of UNMISS and MINUSCA, this article provides support for our argument that the quality of host-state consent can significantly affect the implementation of UN peacekeepers' POC-activities, but shows that such impacts are not necessarily uniform across different sets of efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combining empirical examples from domestic counterinsurgency operations, with historical and primary field data in longitudinal cases of peacekeeping participation by the Indian troops, we develop a preliminary theory of troop reticence. We find that while there is significant learning around civilian protection on the part of Indian troops from internal counterinsurgency operations, there are also important operational differences. Problems with insubordination to international command, gaps in intelligence analysis, and ambiguity over the rules of engagement amidst host-state directed armed attacks on civilians, can make troops hesitant to execute the protection of civilians (PoC) mandate more robustly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nepal is a poor, nonaligned, landlocked country surrounded by India and China that has had good relations with both Israel and the Arab states due in large part to a foreign policy conducted on the basis of Panchasheel, composed of five principles: (1) mutual respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty, (2) noninterference in each other's internal affairs, (3) respect for mutual equality, (4) nonaggression and peaceful settlements of disputes, and (5) cooperation for mutual benefit. This outlook has also motivated Nepal's participation in many United Nations peacekeeping operations. Originally the object of a rivalry between Egypt and Israel, Nepal has attracted the attention of a number of other Middle Eastern states, particularly those in the Arab Gulf region, as witnessed by increasing diplomatic interactions and transportation connections with Nepal and/or its officials especially in recent years, while Nepalis provide much-needed labor for many of those same countries. Despite numbers of cases of worker abuse in the Middle East, Nepali laborers there provide remittances essential for families dealing with difficult living conditions in Nepal as well as a source of foreign revenue for that country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (UNOCI) is widely regarded as having been a successful peacekeeping operation. However, UNOCI bequeathed a number of challenges to Côte d'Ivoire which represented 'unfinished business' on UNOCI's part. The continuing challenges are attributable in part to UNOCI's limited political leverage vis-à-vis the sovereign Ivorian authorities, the consequence of which was partial and/or inconsistent implementation by these authorities of reforms designed to safeguard peace and security in the former conflict-ridden country. The experience highlights the limits of the political leverage that a peacekeeping operation may wield vis-à-vis a host-state government as it endeavours to implement its peacekeeping mandate, especially as closure draws near. Political leverage rarely figures in analyses of peacekeeping operations, but given that peacekeeping performance is often evaluated in relation to the quality of the peace which prevails in a host state in the aftermath of a peacekeeping exit, the focus on political leverage adds an important factor of consideration to the evaluation exercise, in the case of Côte d'Ivoire and more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study systematizes and analyzes the legal aspects of changes in the deployment of international peacekeeping forces over the past 50 years. The article deals with topical political and legal problems facing the peacekeeping activities of the United Nations (UN) and regional international organizations. These problems emanate from both natural institutional and artificially created factors. Overcoming the challenges ahead is possible only through the development of multilateral diplomacy, the aim of which is to achieve long-term and realizable agreements to resolve conflicts and establish lasting and sustainable peace. The study analyzes the role, effect, and potential of peacekeeping operations under the auspices of the UN and other regional international organizations to ensure international security as a timely response to legal and institutional challenges related to the interests of certain players in the world arena, where Russia and some countries in Europe and Asia have been affected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]