The UN as a Peace Enforcer : A Quantitative Study on the Prospects of Chapter VII-missions

The robust turn in peacekeeping has meant that an increasing number of UN peacekeeping missions are mandated under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. Chapter VII authorizes the peacekeepers to use force to implement the mandate. This trend has received criticism from several scholars, arguing it undermines the effectiveness of the peacekeepers. However, few quantitative studies have examined the consequences of authorizing missions using Chapter VII. This study investigates how UN peacekeeping missions mandated under Chapter VII manage to reduce combat violence in internal armed conflicts. Drawing on existing theories on how peacekeeping affects conflicts, this study argues that missions mandated under Chapter VII will decrease the level of combat violence. The study uses quantitative data on the number of battle-related deaths in internal armed conflicts in Africa 1989 -2018. The data is analyzed using the ordinary least squared (OLS) method. The findings presented indicate that peacekeeping operations mandated under Chapter VII can decrease the level of combat violence from very high levels to medium levels, but struggles to decrease them further. Even though these missions are not able to end armed conflicts, this suggest that missions mandated under Chapter VII make an important contribution in limiting the deadliness of internal armed conflicts