When Peacekeeping Missions Collide: Balancing Multiple Roles in Peace Operations

The article discusses the challenges and complexities of modern peacekeeping, highlighting the need for a more comprehensive approach that addresses the diverse range of conflicts peacekeepers face. The book "When Peacekeeping Missions Collide" provides an original assessment of how different peacekeeping missions intersect with one another in contemporary conflicts, using a novel dataset and case studies to measure their effectiveness.

Format: Unspecified
Length: 312 pages
Publication date: 29 November 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

The modern world is plagued with a diverse array of conflicts, each presenting unique challenges that have no historical precedent. While traditional accounts of peacekeeping primarily emphasize efforts to mitigate violent conflict, they fail to fully encompass the diverse range of challenges faced by today's peacekeepers. These individuals are now tasked with unconventional roles such as monitoring elections, facilitating transitions to the rule of law, distributing humanitarian aid, and resolving conflicts within civil societies undergoing transformation. Understanding the activities of modern-day peacekeepers requires examining this complex context.

In their book, When Peacekeeping Missions Collide, Paul F. Diehl, Daniel Druckman, and Grace B. Mueller offer an original and comprehensive assessment of how different peacekeeping missions intersect in contemporary conflicts. The authors begin by documenting the patterns of peacekeeping missions in 70 United Nations (UN) operations, highlighting the significant increase in the number and diversity of operations since the end of the Cold War, as well as the shift towards conflicts characterized by substantial internal conflict components.

The central question of the book revolves around how individual peacekeeping missions impact the outcomes of other missions within the same operations. To address this, the authors have developed a novel dataset encompassing UN peace operations from 1946 to 2016 to assess mission compatibility. Furthermore, they employ five detailed case studies of UN peacekeeping operations that exhibit interdependence and measure the results against their theoretical expectations.

The model developed by the authors for analyzing the effectiveness of today's far more complex peace operations, in comparison to the simpler operations of the past, is of paramount importance. This book serves as a valuable resource for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners seeking to understand the complexities of peacekeeping and develop strategies for achieving successful outcomes in complex conflict environments.

Weight: 448g
Dimension: 235 x 155 x 17 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780197696859