Most research questions and theory in quantitative peace and conflict research are fundamentally causal. However, a large gap exists in the extant literature between research question and research methodology. Not only does most existing methodology fail to achieve what most quantitative peace scholars attempt, but many researchers do not appear to be aware of these limitations. In this dissertation, I outline five key shortcomings within this literature that, left unaddressed, create results that are not informative of the questions quantitative peace researchers are interested in. This dissertation demonstrates solutions addressing these shortcomings with two applied chapters, conducting causal research designs on a study examining the economic impact of United Nations peacekeeping operations and the effect of human rights treaties on repression, respectively. I find that conventionally-established results in the literature change dramatically when exposed to methodological changes informed by the causal inference literature.

yes / Much has been written about the high rates of rape and other forms of violence against ‘enemy’ women in wartime, and sustained violences against women in post-war contexts. Research on violence against women, recognised as a problem for peace and development and even a threat to international security, has begun to identify and explain contrasts between different locations. The explanations focus on men, their behaviour and ‘masculinities’, some of which, and even some military codes, may even proscribe such violence. By contrast, research on the mental health of male former combatants, and possibly other male survivors of war trauma, suggests that there is a strong risk of them perpetrating violence specifically against women, even in cases where the highest standard of veteran care is expected, but without much explanation. This article considers what potential there is in this topic for lessons in peacebuilding policy and identifies areas for future research.

Yes / The civil war in South Sudan raises the all-too familiar problem of the crisis of state formation and nation-building in post-colonial Africa. Based on extensive field research in Sudan and South Sudan between 2005 and 2013, this chapter argues that the international response to post-independence nation-building and post-liberation-war peacebuilding was not predicated on coherent and consistent timing and sequencing. If anything, the case of South Sudan illustrates that the rather inconsistent, uncoordinated post-war peacebuilding and statebuilding, as well as the lack of domestic legitimacy and ownership of the post-liberation-war peacebuilding and nation-building interventions, aggravated the fundamental grievances leading to the outbreak of the December 2013 civil war. What is more, South Sudan demonstrates how events on the ground and the pursuit of the strategic interests of the key national, regional, and international stakeholders framed and determined the nature, scope, timing, and even the sequencing of post-war peacebuilding and nation-building.

Yes

No / This chapter draws on the experience of Programme for a Peaceful City (PPC) at the University of Bradford. The PPC has created spaces to exchange ideas about peace thinking and practice for over ten years, in response to some of the worst rioting the UK mainland has ever seen and heated domestic debates about cohesion and multiculturalism. Its work continues to be rooted in a constantly shifting local context and this chapter describes the spaces created for academics, practitioners and activists to exchange knowledge and ideas about conflict, participatory peacebuilding, good relationships and social change.

Why do local populations regard peacekeepers from certain countries as friendly, and from others not? This study delves into the cultural proximity and cultural awareness of peacekeepers, suggesting it as one factor that influences public perceptions on the peacekeepers and the mission as a whole. I argue that a closer cultural proximity of peacekeepers to the mission country correlates positively with a more favorable public perception on the mission. The working mechanism behind the relationship is based on the theory of winning hearts and minds. Aiming for empirical validation, this hypothesis undergoes examination by using a structured focused comparison between the Malian cities of Gao and Timbuktu. In addition, I complement the study with the method of process tracing, using own data collected through expert interviews with 10 individuals who gained field experience in MINUSMA. The results of the structured focused comparison yield unexpected results: The evidence does not align with the hypothesis due to a lack of variation in the peacekeepers‘ cultural proximity between the cases. However, the tracing of the causal mechanism proves invaluable. It finds support for certain parts of the theorized mechanism while inviting for further exploration on additional intervening factors that reshape or complement the causal chain.

Responding to and preventing violent conflict continue to be a major concern on the international agenda. However, the results of peacebuilding projects are often mixed and some interventions have even proven harmful in the past. In the debates on aid effectiveness, evaluations have been advocated as being an effective instrument to better understand the results of development and peacebuilding projects and thereby ultimately to improve the practice. However, despite a long tradition of evaluation utilisation research dating back to the 1970s, the effects of peacebuilding evaluations are far from being understood. The concept of evaluation use is too narrow and does not take the diversity of potential positive and negative evaluation effects into account. There is little evidence concerning the organisational factors that influence the use and effects of evaluations. Using a comparative case study analysis in three organisations implementing peacebuilding activities (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, Saferworld and the World Bank), this study examines the roles and effects of peacebuilding evaluations within international organisations. The results show a wide range of positive and negative evaluation effects that are promoted or hindered by different attitudes and the process of the evaluation, in addition to organisational and other contextual factors. To improve our understanding of the interlinkages in this context, evaluation pathways causally linking different effects and factors are proposed.

Yes / Transboundary Peace Parks are established along international borders surrounded by biodiversity that needs to be protected, particularly in regions that were devastated as consequence of internal or international conflicts. They are conceived as peacebuilding strategies to bring former enemies together through the joint management of the shared environment. This dissertation explores the effectiveness of Transboundary Peace Parks in promoting more cooperative and peaceful inter-State relations. In order to demonstrate such effectiveness, three initiatives will be analyzed: Cordillera del Cóndor between Ecuador and Peru, the Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration between Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Uganda and the Balkans Peace Park Project (B3P) involving Albania, Kosovo/a and Montenegro. The concepts State sovereignty, borders and territory will be analyzed in this dissertation since they are key factors to take in account when establishing a Transboundary Peace Park. Apart from States, the involvement of local communities is essential when developing these initiatives. The participation of other stakeholders such as NGOs, international organizations and private donors, is also vital for the success of these initiatives. This dissertation also aims to draw the attention to the positive effects of Peace Parks in their area of influence since they receive mostly criticism.

The role of gender on international security has received a great deal of attention. In crucial political arenas, women are conspicuously absent, and this lack of representation permits male interests to take precedence. In 2017, the global average percentage of women in parliament was only 23.3%, a gain of 6.5% over the previous decade. Does the occurrence of violent conflict change when women become leaders or when their participation in parliament increases? There is a varied range of explanations that supports or contradicts the assertion that women in leadership positions lead to less conflict and war. This research aims to evaluate the conduct of female leaders during crises. It is impossible to prove that female pacifism creates a less conflicted system. However, it does contribute to the notion that a women-only leadership would be just as conflicted as the existing patriarchal institutions, albeit in a different manner. The study conducted a desk study research method. It aimed to answer specific questions related to primary research. Secondary research was conducted by looking at already existing secondary data. The obtained data were analyzed through thematic analysis. The findings suggest that women may have distinct gender values than males due to their different social positions. Women leaders must overcome sex role stereotypes. Women in influential positions may use their experiences as voters and members of society in their policy choices as leaders. The widest gender disparity occurs between men and women in the intellectual core of politics (foreign affairs). This has driven women to favor other paths over foreign policy and war, so we may anticipate female leaders in powerful positions to behave differently than males. / Master of Arts / Gender and its influence on international relations has gained interest worldwide. Notably, women today are few in the political scene. Consequently, male interests are dominant. For example, the number of female parliamentarians has increased slightly over the last few decades. Nevertheless, whether women leaders result in less conflict and war remains a question. This thesis evaluates the conduct of women leaders during conflict and war. According to the findings, the answer as to whether women leaders cause less conflict and war is inconclusive. In fact, just like male leaders, women leaders are just as likely to result in more conflict and war. However, women leaders are faced with specific sex-role stereotypes. Moreover, women leaders are more likely to address social issues based on their experiences. These factors may influence female leaders to behave differently than men.

This thesis undertakes a critical approach to understanding the role of media within the responsibility to protect doctrine framework. The purpose of this work is to respond to the following main two questions: Are there non-violent means that can be applied within the context of the responsibility to protect, Pillar III in particular? Does the conceptualisation of the responsibility to protect and the role assigned to the media prevent or facilitate the application of non-violence to the resolution of humanitarian crises, such as genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against humanity? In order to investigate the above research questions, it adopts a nuanced Social Constructionist perspective, through which the social function of the media is highlighted. This is achieved through the application of Critical Discourse Analysis, which allowed critical engagement with the semantic position of ‘media’, ‘dialogue,’ and ‘non-violence’ within the founding documents published by the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty and the United Nations that developed the concept of the responsibility to protect between 2001 and 2018. Finally, the work explored how the responsibility to protect has been discussed in selected media outlets that are reflective of two different approaches to journalism, whose underpinning principles differ substantially: mainstream and peace journalism. By adopting the same methodological approach and applying it to the case of the NATO intervention to Libya in 2011 this section of this thesis critically investigated whether there is a difference in their discourse, and, if so, what this difference is.