Resistance Against Peacekeeping and Host-State Consent
Roadblock in South Sudan
My fourth strand of research focuses on how conflict parties respond to peacekeeping missions.
Conflict parties are often treated as passive actors without agency in the peacekeeping literature. I am interested in how conflict parties try to shape, resist, or adapt to peacekeeping missions to advance their own interests. Based on the peacekeeping data I obtained during my post-doc at the University of Manchester, I was able to conduct a study on how armed actors obstruct and intimidate peacekeepers to undermine civilian protection efforts. I have also studied how a lack of host-state consent undermines civilian protection efforts. This research has been published in International Studies Review and Civil Wars. Finally, one highlight of my research on peacekeeping has been to bring a group of researchers and practitioners together in Zurich to discuss the achievements, challenges, and prospects of UN peacekeeping as part of the 75-year anniversary of UN peacekeeping. This led to a forum article published in International Peacekeeping, which, among others grapples with the question of how host-state consent will shape future peacekeeping operations.
