IBS Speaker Series: Meg Shannon

Join in person or via Zoom, email ibs-contact@colorado.edu for the password.
*Light lunch served at 11:45, please RSVP.

Title: Peacekeeping Complexity and Contributions to United Nations Missions

Abstract: United Nations peacekeeping is an important instrument for maintaining international peace, but the mandates that peacekeeping operations (PKOs) are expected to implement have become increasingly complex as a result of UN Security Council politics. We argue that one major consequence of this trend is that certain regimes are more incentivized by the process benefits of contributing to complex missions such as reimbursement, training, and reputation. As such, we expect that nondemocratic states and states with a strong role of the military in government make greater contributions to missions with complex mandates than democratic states and states with weaker militaries. In a global analysis of UN member peacekeeping contributions from 1990 to 2015, we show that as mandate complexity increases, nondemocracies make larger contributions relative to democracies, and states with stronger military regimes make larger contributions than weaker military regimes. While democracies do not shy away from supporting peacekeeping, they resist substantial contributions to the increasingly ambitious missions that they have themselves promoted. These findings contribute to ongoing academic discussions about the challenges to the international community in recruiting sufficient resources to pursue peacekeeping while insisting on a liberal (and perhaps imperial) global order.

Bio: Megan Shannon an associate professor in the department of political science at CU Boulder. Her research explores how international institutions influence human and interstate security.