CREATING GLOBAL SYNERGIES: INTER-ORGANIZATIONAL COOPERATION IN PEACE OPERATIONS BY

ii Most peace operations (60%), deployed from 1978 to 2009 by international organizations (IOs), were deployed in conflicts in which other international organizations ’ peace operations were active at the same time. Multiple simultaneous peace operations increased from around 10 % of all peace operations in 1992 to almost 60 % of all peace operations in 2007. I define two or more peace operations deployed by international organizations at the same time, in the same conflicts as multiple simultaneous peace operations (MSPOs). This continuous increase in multiple simultaneous peace operations has not been paralleled by an increase in scholarly analysis of this phenomenon. We have little understanding of why we observe international organizations (IOs) deployed at the same time, in the same conflicts, and increasingly cooperating with each other to address these conflicts. This study asks the question: What factors determine cooperation between international organizations in peace operations? I test several rational and social constructivist explanations introducing an innovativ