Why Protectors become Predators - The Logic of Civilian Abuse by Peacekeepers: Evidence from African

"Why Protectors become Predators - The Logic of Civilian Abuse by Peacekeepers: Evidence from African Union Troops in Somalia"

Prabin Khadka

New York University

Abstract:

Protection of civilians(POC) is the most important denominator in peacekeeping to win civilian support. Yet, one of its success stories, the African Union Peacekeeping Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) is plagued by accusations of human rights violations. What provokes peacekeepers in committing civilian abuse —the catalyst for the loss of “hearts and minds”? I propose an explanation that peacekeepers exposed to Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attack exhibit more disregard towards civilians. I survey 600 AMI-SOM peacekeepers randomly selected from 29 bases to capture a civilian abuse index by proxying their perceptions on civil-military relations and civilian casualties. For my identification, I exploit fine-grained geo-coded IED attacks against each individual soldier after his arrival at his base as my IV. For robustness, I separately compare my abuse index between AMISOM Ethiopians and Ethiopian Blue Helmets from South Sudan. Results suggest that when there is an IED attack against an AMISOM peacekeeper, chances of him willing to commit civilian abuse increases by 10% than when there are no IED attacks. I propose two mechanisms: show of force and desire for revenge and test these with a separate survey experiment. Findings point to AMISOM peacekeepers’ propensity to engage in civilian abuse only when IED attacks result in AMISOM casualties which I attribute to the revenge channel. My findings provide first quantitative evidence of why peacekeepers commit civilian abuse despite its detrimental effects on the “hearts and minds” campaign.

Discussants:

Renard Sexton (Princeton University)

Seden Akcinaroglu (Binghamton University)

Austin Wright (University of Chicago)

OPSC Coordinator:

Emily Hencken Ritter (Vanderbilt University)

Graduate Assistant:

Heesun Yoo (Vanderbilt University)