The Importance of UN Security Council Resolutions in Peacekeeping Operations*

• Author: Colin Tucker,Michelle Benson
• Published date: 01 April 2022
• DOI: 10.1177/00220027211044205
• Date: 01 April 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

2022, Vol. 66(3) 473 –503

The Importance

of UN Security

Council Resolutions

in Peacekeeping

Operations*

Michelle Benson

1

and Colin Tucker

1

Abstract

The influence of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping in civil conflict has received

important consideration in a growing body of literature. Little research, however,

has focused on UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and their ability to

determine and affect peacekeeping. New data on UNSC resolutions coded to

UCDP/PRIO internal conflicts with peacekeeping operations (PKOs) is presented

here. The data illustrate that resolutions vary importantly across conflicts and

missions regarding their timing, sentiment toward rebel and government factions,

level of action, mandates, authorized force levels, and substantive policies. Through a

series of negative-binomial regressions using conflict-month replication data, we

demonstrate that PKOs with both higher troops levels and a higher intensity of

resolutions that condemn rebel actors experience a significant reduction one-sided

rebel violence against civilians. In short, UNSC resolutions differ importantly before

and during peacekeeping operations and may have an important impact on PKO

effectiveness in civil conflict.

Keywords

United Nations, civil wars, civilian casualties, data

1

University at Buffalo, SUNY, Buffalo, NY, USA

Corresponding Author:

Michelle Benson, University at Buffalo, SUNY, 520 Park Hall, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA.

Email: mbenson2@buffalo.edu

Journal of Conflict Resolution

ªThe Author(s) 2021

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DOI: 10.1177/00220027211044205

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Article

474 Journal of Conflict Resolution 66(3)

Of the 210 civil conflicts which began after the establishment of the United Nations in

1946, 38 (approximately 18%) received a UN peacekeeping operation.

1

The determi-

nants of which conflicts are ultimately selected to receive United Nations (UN) peace-

keeping operations (PKOs) has received important examination in recent literature

(Gilligan and Stedman 2003; Fortna 2004b; Mullenbach 2005; Beardsley and

Schmidt 2012). Less research, however, has attempted to explain why some conflicts

receive greater attention, energy, and commitment from the UN than others.

For instance, why do some conflicts receive peacekeeping quickly, as in the case

of the Ivory Coast (with MINUCI in the early 2000s), while others languish for years

until an operation is deployed, as with Burundi (with ONUB in the late 1990s)? Why

are some conflicts’ peacekeeping missions authorized with high levels of forces, for

example in Liberia (with UNMIL, carrying almost 15,000 personnel), while others

are mandated half that amount, as in Sudan (with UNISFA’s total force of 4,250)?

Why do some operations have multidimensional mandates that, for example, pro-

vide security and protection of women and children specifically, while others

receive no such mandate? Why are some conflicts the focus of resolutions t hat

rebuke or laud conflict disputants while other conflicts receive largely

sentiment-free resolutions?

These questions, and many other important issues related to the establishment and

preconditions for peacekeeping missions, often cannot be addressed in a generalized

manner without data on the content of UNSC resolut ions as they relate to civil

conflicts. This paper aims t o help remedy this lack throug h the presentation of

original datasets of UNSC resolutions on UN peacekeeping operations from 1946

to 2015. These data, which we title the “UN Peacekeeping Resolutions” (UNPR)

dataset, are coded to UCDP/PRIO civil conflicts and are operationalized at the

conflict-month and conflict units of analysis.

2

Included in these data are variables on the number and timing of UNSC resolu-

tions prior to and during the establishment of UN peacekeeping operations, whether

they state pro-government, pro-rebel, anti-government, and anti-rebel sentiments, as

well as the level of action that they prescribe (e.g., “low-level” or “high-level”). The

dataset further includes information on each mission’s total authorized numbers of

troops, police, and observer forces; as well as their substantive mandates. These

mandates include security provisions, DDR implementation, ceasefire facilitation,

peace agreement implementation, monitoring of elections, protection of women and

children, training of domestic forces, and observation of conflict hostilities. The

datasets are mergeable with both the UCDP/PRIO datasets and other UN peace-

keeping datasets, such as Kathman’s (2013) troop deployment data.

Using these data, we provide a descriptive analysis of how the UNSC has

addressed conflicts which receive peacekeeping operations. We show that there is

important variation in the timing of resolutions, the number of resolutions, the level

of resolutions, and the sentiment expressed in resolutions both before and during

peacekeeping operations. Using some of these new variables, we employ Hultman,

Kathman, and Shannon’s replication data (2013) to il lustrate that high levels of

2Journal of Conflict Resolution XX(X)