Finding soldiers of peace: three dilemmas for UN peacekeeping missions
"The United Nations (UN) faces three dilemmas each time it forms a peacekeeping operation. It must convince states to contribute troops to the mission, it must persuade them to do so quickly, and it must get them to stay for a sufficient period of time for the mission to be a success. Gary Uzonyi finds that the key for the UN in overcoming these dilemmas is to highlight for member states the connection between offering peacekeepers and slowing conflict-driven refugee flows. This connects self-interest of the states with the liberal goal of civilian protection. He analyzes data from all post-Cold War UN peacekeeping missions and takes a closer look at two case studies of past missions in Sudan and Mali to draw conclusions for both scholars and policy practitioners. He finds that much of the conventional wisdom, which says that states join peacekeeping missions for payment or humanitarian considerations, is wrong or incomplete. Uzonyi's research will help scholars and practitioners to predict not only who is most likely to send support, but also where they will send assistance, when they are likely to become involved, the size of contribution they will be willing to make, and when they will be likely to leave a mission. The concise treatment of the topic makes it ideal for classroom use or policy discussions"--