Humanitarian Principles Under Fire : how peacekeepers’ humanitarian activities influence violence against aid workers by non-state actors

Sammanfattning

How do humanitarian operations, operationalized as Quick-Impact Projects (QIPs), by UN peacekeeping operations influence violence against aid workers by non-state actors? Estimating negative binomial regressions on a global sample of all countries hosting a PKO between 2015 and 2023, this thesis finds tentative support for two hypotheses: I) Violence against aid workers increases as more QIPs are conducted, and II) this effect is moderated by whether a PKO is mandated to protect aid workers. QIPs may blur the line between humanitarian and political goals, compromising the perceived impartiality and neutrality of aid workers. Their association with peacekeepers can make them appear as aligned with, or subordinate to, a political agenda of a foreign PKO. This puts aid workers at risk of retaliation by non-state armed groups. However, these findings are not definitive and should be interpreted with caution. Endogeneity, particularly due to selection bias, is a key concern. Fixed-effects models are estimated to address this risk, but they yield statistically insignificant support. Still, the relative size of their coefficient estimates remains consistent with the baseline models, suggesting that the hypotheses remain plausible.