'After Exit': UN Peacekeeper project awarded ESRC funding
Professor Richard Caplan and colleagues have been awarded nearly £900,000 by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for a new project on the aftermath of United Nations (UN) Peacekeeping missions - assessing how the withdrawal of UN peacekeepers affects state capacity in formerly ‘peacekept’ states.
Dr John Gledhill (University of Oxford), Dr Andrea Ruggeri (University of Oxford), Dr Sabrina Karim (Cornell University) and Dr Athena Kolbe (University of North Carolina Wilmington) will join Prof Caplan as co-investigators for the project, titled 'After Exit: Assessing the Consequences of United Nations Peacekeeping Withdrawal'.
Since 1991 and the end of the Cold War, UN peacekeeping missions have increased significantly, in both number and scope. Gradually, these missions have moved away from maintaining detente between adversaries to performing complex peace-building and state-building tasks. But what happens when they leave?
'After Exit' will investigate and document conditions "on the ground" in countries that have hosted large-scale UN peacekeeping operations and explore how states fare after the departure of UN peacekeepers and their resources.
Combining comprehensive cross-national analysis with case study research, 'After Exit' hopes to make a timely contribution to discussions around the future of UN peacekeeping. The two and a half year project will focus on:
- documenting the capacities and functions of formerly peacekept states identifying the conditions which affect the stability of states and their ability to deliver key public services
- working with the UN and other international organisations to develop best practice for future operations
- providing domestic authorities with insights to help them face the challenges of peacekeeper withdrawal.
To find out more, please visit the 'After Exit' website.
