USING FORCE TO PROTECT CIVILIANS : successes and failures of united nations peace operations in... africa

Using Force to Protect Civilians offers the first comprehensive analysis of United Nations military protection operations across time and UN missions, drawing on a novel dataset that covers 200 operations from ten UN peacekeeping missions in Africa from 1999 to 2017. Employing a mixed-methods research design, the book finds that Blue Helmets succeed as often as they fail when they employ force to protect, indicating that they can wield force effectively - under the right conditions - to achieve this priority task. Stian Kjeksrud shows that effective UN military protection operations must rest on a deep understanding of perpetrators' motivation and modus operandi for attacking civilians, facilitating tailored military responses to stop or reduce physical threats in a timely manner. Adding to existing knowledge about the conflict-reducing effect of the presence of uniformed UN personnel, he also finds that specific actions matter more than the simple presence of Blue Helmets in large numbers. While protecting civilians is a priority task for military peacekeepers, we have limited knowledge about how they fare across time and in different UN missions when they use force to protect. We also remain largely ignorant of the conditions leading to successful outcomes when they intervene militarily to protect civilians from violence. Using Force to Protect Civilians addresses both of these knowledge gaps, and provides the building blocks for a theory of the utility of force to protect civilians in UN peace operations. cover titlepage copyright Acknowledgments Contents Preface List of figures List of tables 1 Protection by military force in UN peace operations The book in a nutshell Defining success in UN military protection operations Unpacking UN military protection operations Understanding the perpetrators to tailor effective operations So what? Outline of the book 2 Understanding the utility of force to protect civilians from violence Four causal condition candidates Causal mechanisms and hypotheses Further deliberations on the matching theory Summary of causal condition candidates 3 Exploring characteristics and outcomes of UN military protection operations Characteristics of UN military protection operations Summary of descriptive statistics Estimating outcomes of UN military protection operations (1999–2017) 4 Analyzing empirical patterns of UN military protection operations Operationalization of causal condition candidates Bivariate cross-tabulations Summary of cross-tabulations Multivariate linear probability analysis 5 Discovering causal pathways to successful protection outcomes Qualitative Comparative Analysis The outcome Causal condition candidates Necessary conditions for successful outcomes Causal recipes toward successful outcomes 6 Protecting Civilians from the M23 Matching the M23 Pre-empting the M23 Troop-to-perpetrator ratios Willingness to accept risk Additional explanations for the successful outcome Conclusion 7 Overwhelmed by the White Army Failing to match the White Army The absence of relevant responses to Murle revenge attacks Pre-emption Troop-to-perpetrator ratios Willingness to accept risk Additional explanations for the unsuccessful outcome Conclusion 8 Increasing the utility of force to protect Summary of main findings Implications for theory, policy, and practice of UN military protection operations Appendix References Index This book offers the first comprehensive analysis of United Nations military protection operations across time and UN missions. It draws on a novel dataset that covers 200 operations from ten UN peacekeeping missions in Africa from 1999 to 2017, and evaluates the successes and failures of UN military troops in protecting civilians from violence.