United Nations Peacekeeping and Civilian Protection in Civil War

Does United Nations peacekeeping protect civilians in civil war? Civilian protection is a primary purpose of UN peacekeeping, yet there is little systematic evidence for whether peacekeeping prevents civilian deaths. We propose that UN peacekeeping can protect civilians if missions are adequately composed of military troops and police in large numbers. Using unique monthly data on the number and type of UN personnel contributed to peacekeeping operations, along with monthly data on civilian deaths from 1991 to 2008 in armed conflicts in Africa, we find that as the UN commits more military and police forces to a peacekeeping mission, fewer civilians are targeted with violence. The effect is substantial—the analyses show that, on average, deploying several thousand troops and several hundred police dramatically reduces civilian killings. We conclude that although the UN is often criticized for its failures, UN peacekeeping is an effective mechanism of civilian protection.     

Markets and Corporate Conflict: A Substitution-Cost Approach to Business Litigation

This paper examines the phenomenon of conflict escalaton in business relations. A theory of when conflict between firms will proceed from informal relationship-preserving norms to more formal and destructive end games involving litigation is developed and tested. The central theoretical claim is that substitution costs serve as an impediment against the escalation of conflict. Data on market concentration and dollar flows between aggregate markets in the economy are used to develop measures of substitution costs. Measures of substitution costs and trade figures are also used to describe power advantages in markets. The theory is tested through a series of regression models. The main findings are that (1) when substitution costs are high, parties are less likely to escalate conflict and (2) asymmetric market relations result in less conflict escalation than symmetric ones. Empirical analysis indicates that substitution costs are related in predictable and meaningful ways to conflict escalation and business litigation.     

THE HUMAN RIGHT TO INFORMATION,THE ENVIRONMENT AND INFORMATION ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT: FROM THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION TO THE AARHUS CONVENTION

Citizen access to government-held information and the amelioration of environmental problems are considered statutory matters in the United States, but at the international level these are seen as fundamental human rights. In recent years two categories of human rights demanded by activists, the right to government information and the right to environmental protection, have converged into a new human right—the right to government information about the environment. The 1998 Aarhus Convention, binding in more than forty nations in Europe and Central Asia, is the first multilateral treaty to specifically denote a human right to government information about the environment. While the Aarhus Convention has some untested procedural difficulties and laborious bureaucratic requirements, the treaty can serve as a model for the world's nations at large, because citizen oversight of government actions toward the natural world is a powerful tool for those concerned about both the environment and government transparency.     

The Power of Secrecy and the Secrecy of Power: FACA and the National Energy Policy Development Group

One of President George W. Bush's first official acts was to charter an advisory committee that would make recommendations for a new American energy policy. While the National Energy Policy Development Group was officially made up only of government employees, journalists and watchdogs suspected that the committee was inappropriately meeting with representatives of energy firms. Two citizens' groups brought suit under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) to unveil the secrecy surrounding the National Energy Policy Development Group and its policymaking processes. The ensuing court battle revealed the weaknesses of FACA and its paradoxical use by the Bush Administration in continuing the very same government secrecy that the act is intended to prevent. This article examines a particular case of secrecy in the Bush Administration—the formulation of energy policy by Dick Cheney's energy task force—with an analysis of the known activities of the group and the history of citizen challenges to its secrecy. The article then considers the effectiveness, or ineffectiveness, of the Federal Advisory Committee Act as a safeguard against government secrecy.     

Elections Are (Not) Exciting: Need for Cognition and Electoral Behaviour

Need for cognition (NFC) is the personality trait that describes differences in the enjoyment of cognitive efforts. By relying on data collected over two elections in Sweden in 2014, I show the trait's multifaceted political relevance. Individuals who enjoy cognitive challenges are more likely to think that it matters what government that is formed after the election, engage with campaign information, favor complex news over simple news and select stronger reasons for vote choice over weaker, e.g., ideology over habit. Overall, the results suggest that election studies would benefit from measuring need for cognition.     

How Do They ‘End Up Together’? A Social Network Analysis of Self-Control,Homophily, and Adolescent Relationships

Self-control theory (Gottfredson and Hirschi 1990) argues that individuals with similar attributes tend to ‘end up together’ (i.e., homophily) because of the tendency to select friends based on self-control. Studies documenting homophily in peer groups interpret the correlation between self-control, peer delinquency, and self-reported delinquency as evidence that self-control is an influential factor in friendship formation. However, past studies are limited because they do not directly test the hypothesis that self-control influences friendship selection, nor do they account for other mechanisms that may influence decisions. As a result, it is unclear whether the correlation between individual and peer behavior is the result of selection based on self-control or alternative mechanisms. To address this gap in the literature this study employs exponential random graph modeling to test hypotheses derived from self-control theory using approximately 63,000 respondents from 59 schools from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (Add Health). In contrast to the predictions made by Gottfredson and Hirschi (1990), and the conclusions drawn from prior research, there is little evidence that self-control influences friendship selection. The findings are embedded in past work on the relationship between self-control and peer relationships, and implications for future research are discussed.     

Networked Coproduction of Public Services in Virtual Communities: From a Government‐Centric to a Community Approach to Public Service Support

Research on and practical attention for the coproduction of public services is increasing. Coproduction is seen as a way to strengthen the quality and legitimacy of public service and reduce costs. Scholarship on coproduction of public services repeatedly ignores the role of the new media. This is surprising since many proponents highlight its potential for changing traditional, government‐centric approaches to delivering public services. This article shows that digital communities form an important addition to the government‐centric form of public service provision since they foster both an exchange of experiential information and social‐emotional support.     

Fighting Discrimination with Discrimination: Public Universities and the Rights of Dissenting Students

This article discusses recent legal conflicts between state universities and conservative religious students in the United States, focusing on Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. In recent years, several universities have denied recognition to religious student organizations that discriminate on the basis of religion or sexual orientation. I argue that scholars on both sides of the issue have failed to recognize the full scope of the privilege that the universities demand. If the courts accept the universities' demands, then the courts dangerously expand the government's authority to suppress dissenters. No proponent of civil liberties should welcome this change.