After Exit: Assessing the Consequences of United Nations Peacekeeping Withdrawal

This is a special session with the presentation of a work in progress on UN peace-building impact on host states.

Introduction:
Ronald Hatto, Senior Lecturer Sciences Po-CERI

After Exit: Assessing the Consequences of United Nations Peacekeeping Withdrawal

Author:

Richard Caplan, Professor of International Relations, Department of Politics and International Relations University of Oxford

Abstract:

Since the end of the Cold War, there has been a vast expansion in the number and scope of UN peacekeeping operations. With rare exceptions, the UN is no longer deploying troops to maintain the peace between former belligerents; rather UN peacekeepers now regularly intervene in ongoing conflicts with the aim of imposing order in the short-term, and then institutionalizing peace over the long-term by supporting the (re)construction of state and governmental institutions. But is the UN realizing this ambitious aim of peacebuilding through statebuilding? To answer this question, we need to know whether states that have played host to UN peacekeeping missions are able to perform basic state functions after PKOs have ended and peacekeepers have withdrawn. Problematically, however, there is currently little and unsystematized data on state capacity and the delivery of public services after exit. In this project, we aim to address this empirical gap by addressing two questions. We first ask, 'What are the trajectories of state capacity following the withdrawal of peacekeeping missions and associated peacekeeping forces?' Our second question moves from description to explanation by asking 'Under what conditions are state functions sustained after exit, and under what conditions is there a shift in state functionality?

La présentation sera donnée en anglais, cependant les questions en français seront les bienvenues

Responsable scientifique: Ronald Hatto, Sciences Po-CERI