Intergovernmental Networks in Peace Operations

Abstract

Notwithstanding the growing consensus on the benefits associated with cooperation among intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) in peacekeeping operations (PKOs), academic research has thus far neglected pressing questions of how IGOs collaborate within a network context in peace missions and how these interorganizational collaborations among IGOs, known as IGO networks, might account for the success or failure of these operations. More specifically, this study concentrates on how structural properties of IGO networks, such as the extensiveness of ties between network partners and the cohesiveness of such networks, may account for PKOs' performance in accomplishing their core goals. A statistical analysis of all IGO peace operation networks since 1991 reveals that the density and centralization of IGO networks predict which PKOs are likely to be successful in accomplishing their core tasks of violence abatement, conflict containment, and conflict settlement.