Does Peacekeeping Work?
Shaping Belligerents' Choices after Civil War
Virginia Page Fortna

Paper | 2008 | $24.95 / £14.95
Cloth | 2008 | $60.00 / £35.00
232 pp. | 6 x 9 | 5 line illus. 9 tables. 3 maps.

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Chapter 1 [HTML] or [PDF]

In the last fifteen years, the number, size, and scope of peacekeeping missions deployed in the aftermath of civil wars have increased exponentially. From Croatia and Cambodia, to Nicaragua and Namibia, international personnel have been sent to maintain peace around the world. But does peacekeeping work? And if so, how? In Does Peacekeeping Work? Virginia Page Fortna answers these questions through the systematic analysis of civil wars that have taken place since the end of the Cold War. She compares peacekeeping and nonpeacekeeping cases, and she investigates where peacekeepers go, showing that their missions are crucial to the most severe internal conflicts in countries and regions where peace is otherwise likely to falter.

Fortna demonstrates that peacekeeping is an extremely effective policy tool, dramatically reducing the risk that war will resume. Moreover, she explains that relatively small and militarily weak consent-based peacekeeping operations are often just as effective as larger, more robust enforcement missions. Fortna examines the causal mechanisms of peacekeeping, paying particular attention to the perspective of the peacekept--the belligerents themselves--on whose decisions the stability of peace depends. Based on interviews with government and rebel leaders in Sierra Leone, Mozambique, and the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh, Does Peacekeeping Work? demonstrates specific ways in which peacekeepers alter incentives, alleviate fear and mistrust, prevent accidental escalation to war, and shape political procedures to stabilize peace.

Virginia Page Fortna is associate professor of political science at Columbia University. She is the author of Peace Time: Cease-Fire Agreements and the Durability of Peace (Princeton).

Endorsements:

"Virginia Page Fortna has written a compelling and courageous book--compelling in the reinforcing comparisons that it makes between aggregate data and case-based research, and courageous in its first-person interviews, conducted with those who perpetrated as well as ended civil wars. The book bridges the worlds of the high-flying 'quant' who sees only forests of data, and the ground-based case researcher knee-deep in political leaf litter. Drawing particular strength from the oft-ignored perspective of those on whose behalf peacekeepers do their work, Fortna's convergent analyses advance our understanding not only of how peacekeeping works but why."--William J. Durch, Henry L. Stimson Center

"Does Peacekeeping Work? is well crafted, tightly argued, intelligent, and thorough. Fortna makes her case for peacekeeping as a successful tool very well. Germane to the important issues, this book will be widely cited and widely employed."--Robert I. Rotberg, Harvard University

Table of Contents:

LIST OF FIGURES, MAPS, AND TABLES ix
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi
CHAPTER ONE: Peacekeeping and the Peacekept Questions, Definitions, and Research Design 1
CHAPTER TWO: Where Peacekeepers Go I Hypotheses and Statistical Evidence 18
CHAPTER THREE: Where Peacekeepers Go II Evidence from the Cases 47
CHAPTER FOUR: A Causal Theory of Peacekeeping 76
CHAPTER FIVE: Peacekeeping Works Evidence of Effectiveness 104
CHAPTER SIX: How Peacekeeping Works Causal Mechanisms from the Perspective of the Peacekept 127
CHAPTER SEVEN: Conclusion and Implications 172
APPENDIX A: The Data 181
APPENDIX B: Predicting the Degree of Difficulty of Maintaining Peace 187
REFERENCES 191
INDEX 207

Another Princeton book by Virginia Page Fortna:

• Peace Time: Cease-Fire Agreements and the Durability of Peace.

Subject Areas:

• Political Science and International Relations
• World History / Comparative History

Shopping Cart:

For customers in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Asia, and Australia
Paper: $24.95 ISBN13: 978-0-691-13671-4
Cloth: $60.00 ISBN13: 978-0-691-13281-5

For customers in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and India
Paper: £14.95 ISBN13: 978-0-691-13671-4
Cloth: £35.00 ISBN13: 978-0-691-13281-5

Prices subject to change without notice

File created: 7/1/2008

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