Deciding to Keep Peace: An Analysis of International Influences on the Establishment of Third-Party Peacekeeping Missions

Since the end of World War II, and particularly since the end of the Cold War, there has been an expansion in the number of third-party peacekeeping missions established throughout the world. Most of the expansion in peacekeeping missions in the past decade or so has occurred in states experiencing intrastate or civil conflicts. The questions addressed in this study are under what conditions do third-party actors either decide to establish or decide not to establish peacekeeping missions in intrastate disputes, and specifically, what effect do international-level factors have on the likelihood that third-party peacekeeping personnel will be deployed in an intrastate dispute? The previous literature on third-party peacekeeping and interventions is used to derive a set of theoretical arguments and hypotheses regarding the establishment of peacekeeping missions by third-party actors (the United Nations, regional organizations, and ad hoc groups of states) during the post-World War II period. Specifically, I argue that several factors originating at the level of the international system influence the occurrence of third-party peacekeeping missions. The results of statistical analyses of the hypotheses largely support the notion that a set of international-level factors significantly influences the decisions of third-party actors to establish or not establish third-party peacekeeping missions, that international-level factors are more important than state-level factors, that these factors often have different effects on the likelihood of different types of third-party peacekeeping.     

Passports, Mobility, and Security: How smart can the border be?

After September 11, 2001, a great deal of public and policy attention has been devoted to border security, passports, and the global mobility regime. This article examines the context of the global regulation of movement of individuals and the evolution of the passport in particular. It then examines the current American border security architecture. The creation of the Homeland Security Department reflects a sea-change in the view of the border, and these new policies are evaluated in regard to three cases: the U.S./Canada border, the document/examination policies at the American borders, and the European Schengen mobility regime.     

Nord-Süd-Differenzen in der globalisierungskritischen Bewegung?

While the global justice movement has often been said to suffer from notable North-South divisions, survey findings from the World Social Forums 2005 (Porto Alegre, Brazil) and 2007 (Nairobi, Kenya) contradict this notion. Logistic regression analyses show no systematic variation between the political attitudes held by respondents from the global North and those held by respondents from the South. While Southern activists are somewhat more likely to hold radically anti-capitalist views than their Northern colleagues, North-South differences regarding the question of whether capitalism should be abolished or reformed are neither robust, nor statistically significant. Response patterns differ, however, between participants from the world-system’s periphery and semiperiphery, as well as between the majority of Latin American participants in the Porto Alegre survey and the majority of African participants in the Nairobi survey. In short, South-South differences among respondents from different world-systemic zones (periphery versus semiperiphery) and socio-geographic regions (Latin America versus Africa) appear to be more pronounced than the oft-assumed North-South differences. The common North-South dichotomy, while quite popular among authors criticizing the notion of an emerging global civil society as empirically inadequate, turns out to miss the mark.     

Local Autonomy and Groundwater District Formation in High-Plains West Texas

In response to pressure from declining underground water reservesand state government demands, West Texas agriculture is organizingunder local groundwater conservation districts. The districtsuse persuasion, education, and access to low-interest loansand grants to encourage water conservation. Little regulatoryauthority is vested in district managers and, outside of statefunds to subsidize irrigation technology, the state has limitedinfluence. This article narrates the creation and operationsof West Texas groundwater districts and analyzes the reasonsfor a recent increase in district organizing as well as theirsuccess in acquiring state funds for conservation.