Peacekeeping and the Enforcement of Intergroup Cooperation, Evidence from Mali

William Nomikos
Additional contact information
William Nomikos: Washington University in St. Louis

Empirical Studies of Conflict Project (ESOC) Working Papers from Empirical Studies of Conflict Project

Abstract: Despite the abundance of evidence that peacekeeping works, we know little about what actually makes peacekeepers effective. Recent work suggesting that local agendas are central to modern conflicts make this omission particularly problematic. The article demonstrates that the presence of peacekeepers makes individuals more optimistic about the risks of engagement and the likelihood that members of outgroups will reciprocate cooperation. I use data from a lab-in-the-field experiment conducted in Mali, a West African country with an active conflict managed by troops from France and the United Nations (UN), to show that UN peacekeepers increase the willingness of individuals to cooperate relative to control and French enforcers. Moreover, I find that UN peacekeepers are especially effective among those participants who hold other groups and institutions in low esteem as well as those who have more frequent contact with peacekeepers. Follow-up interviews and surveys suggest that perceptions of the UN as unbiased rather than other mechanisms account for its effectiveness.

Keywords: Mali; peacekeeping; peacebuilding; ethnic conflict; intergroup cooperation; international enforcement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C72 C91 C93 D74 D91 F51 F53 F54 O55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-exp
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://esoc.princeton.edu/WP20

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pri:esocpu:20

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Empirical Studies of Conflict Project (ESOC) Working Papers from Empirical Studies of Conflict Project Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Bobray Bordelon ().