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Using Force to Protect Civilians offers the first comprehensive analysis of United Nations military protection operations across time and UN missions, drawing on a novel dataset that covers 200 operations from ten UN peacekeeping missions in Africa from 1999 to 2017. Employing a mixed-methods research design, the book finds that Blue Helmets succeed as often as they fail when they employ force to protect, indicating that they can wield force effectively - under the right conditions - to achieve this priority task. Stian Kjeksrud shows that effective UN military protection operations must rest on a deep understanding of perpetrators' motivation and modus operandi for attacking civilians, facilitating tailored military responses to stop or reduce physical threats in a timely manner. Adding to existing knowledge about the conflict-reducing effect of the presence of uniformed UN personnel, he also finds that specific actions matter more than the simple presence of Blue Helmets in large numbers. While protecting civilians is a priority task for military peacekeepers, we have limited knowledge about how they fare across time and in different UN missions when they use force to protect. We also remain largely ignorant of the conditions leading to successful outcomes when they intervene militarily to protect civilians from violence. Using Force to Protect Civilians addresses both of these knowledge gaps, and provides the building blocks for a theory of the utility of force to protect civilians in UN peace operations.
List of contents
- 1: Protection by military force in UN peace operations
- 2: Understanding the utility of force to protect civilians from violence
- 3: Exploring characteristics and outcomes of UN military protection operations
- 4: Analyzing empirical patterns of UN military protection operations
- 5: Discovering causal pathways to successful protection outcomes
- 6: Protecting civilians from the M23
- 7: Overwhelmed by the White Army
- 8: Increasing the utility of force to protect
- Appendices
- Bibliography
About the author
Stian Kjeksrud is an Associate Professor at the Norwegian Defence University College/Command and Staff College. He studies the utility of force to protect civilians from violence in war and armed conflict and develops EdTech tools in Extended Reality to improve learning in higher military education. Before his academic career, Kjeksrud served as an officer and soldier in international operations, including Afghanistan, North Macedonia, Kosovo, and Lebanon, and worked as a police officer in Oslo.
Summary
This book offers the first comprehensive analysis of United Nations military protection operations across time and UN missions. It draws on a novel dataset that covers 200 operations from ten UN peacekeeping missions in Africa from 1999 to 2017, and evaluates the successes and failures of UN military troops in protecting civilians from violence.
Additional text
Kjeksrud lays the groundwork for a theory on the use of force to protect civilians in UN peace operations. The book enhances our understanding of how peacekeepers perform over time and across various UN missions when employing force to safeguard civilians. The book will benefit a policy-making audience focused on the practical elements of UN military protection efforts, as it sheds light on the circumstances that contribute to successful outcomes.
