• Lead Author: Laura Huber

• Co-Authors: Lindsey Pruett and Sabrina Karim

Why do some security force personnel engage in misconduct, while others do not? Misconduct is commonplace within police and militaries, with negative consequences for civilian well-being and state legitimacy. We examine how gendered primes influence individual propensity to tolerate misconduct. We argue that exposure to hyper-masculine and emasculation primes triggers higher tolerance of misconduct within security forces. We test this argument using two survey experiments in what is, to our knowledge, the largest cross-national survey of security force personnel (N=4,429). We find that while visual hyper-masculine primes do not impact attitudes towards misconduct, priming hyper-masculinity and emasculation through verbal ``hearsay" comparisons leads personnel to view misconduct as less serious, and reduces their willingness to report misconduct. Preferences towards punishment shift based on the type of verbal masculinity prime. These results imply that gendered primes lead personnel to tolerate and condone damaging behaviors at higher rates.

• Lead Author: Priscilla Torres

• Co-Authors: Laura Huber, Roya Izadi, Cameron Mailhot, Mike Kriner, Lindsey Pruett, Sabrina Karim

Worldwide, individual police officers and military personnel engage in violence as a part of their mandate to maintain security. Sometimes this violence is unsanctioned and other times it is condoned, but unnecessarily escalates a situation. Starting from the premise that prior beliefs about violence can shape the actions of individual security personnel, we explore the strategic gendered conditions that shape individual security force personnel's beliefs about violence. We posit that female personnel must navigate a masculine work space, which means that they have strategic reasons to personally prefer deescalation, but tolerate misconduct committed by their peers. At the same time, we posit that prior beliefs about gender also shape personnel's preferences about violence, leading them to perceive violence and misconduct as strategically beneficial for them, and not believe that misconduct is particularly serious. We test our hypotheses using original survey data from 10 security forces worldwide, with an N=4,449, and find support for our hypotheses. The results demonstrate the importance of a gendered analysis of security force violence and misconduct, improving understanding of who within the security forces will engage in misconduct and escalation.

• Lead Authors: Mike Kriner and Cameron Mailhot

• Co-authors: Priscilla Torres, Roya Izadi, Laura Huber, Lindsey Pruett, and Sabrina Karim

For decades, the United Nations has established norms of civilian protection as a central dimension of their peace and security agenda, and centered UN peacekeeping around protection. Do these organizational norms about civilian protection diffuse to the individuals tasked with carrying out UN peacekeeping mandates? Here, we develop a theory to explain variation in adoption of ``negative" or ``positive" norms, by looking at the norm against sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) and the norm of civilian protection, respectively. We argue that negative norms are more likely to be adopted due to more consistent content and messaging. Positive norms are less likely to be adopted due to changes in the norm's content, which make them less clear. Using data from an original, novel survey of personnel from nine troop and police contributing countries (N= 4,430), we find that personnel who have participated in UN peace operations are more likely to report SEA, and to view it as a serious problem. However, previously deployed personnel do not develop a similar commitment to civilian protection. This demonstrates that not all UN protection norms diffuse in the same way, and suggests that individuals more readily adopt negative norms, like those against SEA.

• Lead Author: Zinab Attai

• Co-Authors: Emily Brooke Jackson, Angie Torres-Beltran, Taylor Vincent, and Sabrina Karim

This research note examines how climate change influences peacekeepers’ experiences and their ability to protect civilians. While peacekeeping missions have proven effective in reducing violence against civilians, we argue that climate change could limit peacekeepers’ ability to provide such protection. Drawing on over 200 interviews and 5,256 survey responses from UN mission personnel across ten troop and police contributing countries (TPCCs), we find that peacekeepers are already experiencing significant operational challenges due to extreme weather conditions such as rising temperatures, severe droughts, and water shortages. Peacekeepers note the detrimental effects on logistical operations, morale, and health, which ultimately hinder their ability to engage in protection activities. A quantitative replication of \cite{hultman_united_2013} further reveals that deviations in temperature and rainfall may mediate the effectiveness of troop numbers in reducing one-sided violence against civilians. Our findings suggest that as climate change intensifies, it could challenge the effectiveness of peacekeeping operations to provide protection to vulnerable populations in conflict zones.

• Lead Author: Lindsey Pruett

• Co-Authors: Roya Izadi, Mike Kriner, Cameron Mailhot, Priscilla Torres, Laura Huber, and Sabrina Karim

Why police and military officials enlist is of constant concern for organizations seeking to bridge gaps between civilians and the security forces. As we show, personnel are evenly split between ``extrinsic" (e.g. economic and material benefits) and ``intrinsic" motivations (e.g. service and patriotism) for enlisting, while a smaller number are driven by personal connections. The importance of these motivations goes well beyond practical information for eager recruiters. Existing research ties self-selection into security forces to more violent attitudes. However, there is less research tying motivations for recruitment to crucial outcomes within the study of professionalization and civil military relations. Here, we examine how motivations shape retention within security forces, and acceptance of civilian oversight. Drawing on cross-national surveys of security force personnel in nine countries, we demonstrate that individuals who are motivated to enlist for ``intrinsic reasons" are less supportive of civilian oversight. Simultaneously, these personnel are also more likely to consider changing careers. Personnel inspired by personal connections are also less supportive of civilian oversight. These results suggest that concerns over the quality of ``extrinsically" or economically motivated recruits may be misplaced, while efforts to recruit intrinsically motivated and well-connected recruits may yield detrimental results, for both security forces and for civilian institutions.

• Authors: Angie Torres-Beltran and Cameron Mailhot

Published: July 2nd, 2024, International Studies Quarterly

What effect does sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) reporting by the United Nations (UN) have on the actions of peacekeeping missions’ troop and police contributing countries (TPCCs)? While past scholarship has studied the effect of naming and shaming for states’ human rights records, we examine the relationship between the UN’s reporting on human rights abuses committed by its Member States’ personnel and their policy and personnel responses. Focusing on SEA reporting within peacekeeping missions, we theorize the ways in which the UN’s reporting of SEA may lead to two distinct responses: TPCCs may issue legal frameworks to demonstrate compliance and address SEA, or they may withdraw from peacekeeping missions by reducing their personnel commitments. Using an original, cross-national dataset of UN reporting on SEA allegations and the patterns of framework issuance and personnel commitments among TPCCs (2010–2020), we find that TPCCs with SEA reports are more likely to issue legal frameworks and to reduce personnel contributions than their nonreported counterparts, and that this relationship is particularly strong following the first instance of reporting. With targeted TPCCs demonstrating both greater policy compliance and personnel withdrawal, our findings highlight the dynamic impact that UN reporting for SEA can have on the actions of TPCCs.

• Lead Authors: Sumin Lee and Andrey Tomashevskiy

Published: April 12th, 2023, International Interaction

How does government oversight of the military affect the occurrence of wartime sexual violence? This paper highlights the role of civil-military relations and state capacity in the occurrence of sexual violence. Building on research that examines wartime sexual violence in the principal-agent framework, we propose a game-theoretic model in which the military deploys wartime sexual violence based on its expectation of government oversight. We describe an equilibrium where monitoring is an informative signal of the government’s capacity to carry out the punishment. The government monitors strategically and may choose to remain “strategically ignorant” of the military’s conduct. Since government oversight is an informative signal of punishment, the military abstains from wartime sexual violence when oversight is high. We examine the empirical implications of the model using data on sexual violence, military oversight, and state capacity and find support for the hypotheses generated by the model.

• Lead Authors: Elizabeth Brannon and Sumin Lee

Forthcoming at Security Studies

Why do some post-conflict governments adopt accountability for wartime sexual violence while others do not? In this paper, we focus on the incentives of rebel parties to adopt post-war accountability, focusing on how their wartime governance practices influence their post-war behavior. We argue that when in power, rebel parties are more likely than non-rebel parties to support post-war accountability for wartime sexual violence as it helps them restore their reputation and rebrand the party. This tendency will be more salient in rebel parties that had exercised wartime justice measures as rebel groups. However, we expect that culpability in wartime sexual violence will make them reluctant to prosecute for fear of highlighting their own crimes. Using datasets on rebel governance and sexual violence prosecutions in post-conflict African countries from 1998 to 2018, we find support for our theoretical expectations. Our findings speak to the myriad avenues through which rebel party governance and culpability influence post-conflict politics and transitional justice.