Peacekeeping in the Midst of War

Civil wars have caused tremendous human suffering in the last century, and the United Nations is often asked to send peacekeepers to stop ongoing violence. Yet despite being the most visible tool of international intervention, policymakers and scholars have little systematic knowledge about how well peacekeeping works. Peacekeeping in the Midst of War offers the most comprehensive analyses of peacekeeping on civil war violence to date. With unique data on different types of violence in civil wars around the world, Peacekeeping in the Midst of War offers a rigorous understanding of UN intervention by analysing both wars with and without UN peacekeeping efforts. It also directly measures the strength of UN missions in personnel capacity and constitution. Using large-n quantitative analyses, the book finds that UN peacekeeping missions with appropriately constituted force capacities mitigate violence in civil wars. The authors conclude by analyzing the broader context of UN intervention effectiveness, and conclude that peacekeeping is a more generally effective way to reduce the human suffering associated with civil war.

Lisa Hultman, Associate Professor, Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University,Jacob D. Kathman, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, State University of New York at Buffalo,Megan Shannon, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Colorado Boulder

Lisa Hultman is Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University. She conducts research on issues relating to civil war, violence against civilians, and international interventions. Her current research is funded by a Wallenberg Academy Fellow grant and a consolidator grant from the Swedish Research Council. Her publications appear in International Organization, Journal of Politics, American Political Science Review, and American Journal of Political Science amongst others.


Jacob Kathman is an Associate Professor in the Political Science Department at SUNY Buffalo. He received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and previously worked as an assistant professor at the University of Mississippi. His research focuses on United Nations peacekeeping, civil war, civilian victimization, and associated phenomena. His work has been published in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, and the British Journal of Political Science among other outlets. His teaching interests include the topics above and various subjects in international relations and comparative politics.


Megan Shannon is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research studies how international institutions influence human and interstate security. Her work has been published in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, and Journal of Politics. She has received funding for her research from the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at Notre Dame and the Folke Bernadotte Academy of Sweden.