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ABSTRACT
Peacekeeping operations, mandated through the United Nations and regional bodies, play an increasingly diverse role in the economic development of post-conflict countries. A key way that missions can use their administrative capacity to support economic recovery is developing effective technology use and acquisition strategies in host countries, which is a peacekeeping-wide policy goal outlined in the high-level Performance Peacekeeping report. Our paper introduces the theoretical channels through which missions’ use of information communication technologies (ICTs) can support local economic development in post-conflict settings, making a theoretical argument that draws on both the literature on ICTs in peacekeeping and in economic development. We specify a Cobb–Douglas model that describes the potential impact of peacekeeping mission-led ICT investment on longer term economic development in combination with statistics on mission technology spending and internet use in host countries, providing a formal scaffold for our theoretical argument. Using this model and data in combination with a case study of the Central African Republic-based United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic mission, we argue that peacekeeping missions should use their purchasing power and stabilizing influence to attract value-added technology investment to support economic development.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Susan Allen, Thomas E. Flores, Christian von Haldenwang, Roger Mac Ginty, Constantin Ruhe, Aarti Singh, and Hannah Smidt for feedback on different versions of this article. We also thank the participants at the 2016 Midwest, European, and American Political Science Association meetings for their feedback on earlier versions of this paper. The anonymous reviewers helped us focus our theoretical motivation; we thank them and the editors for their help improving the manuscript.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Charles P. Martin-Shields is currently a Researcher with the German Development Institute, and formerly a Visiting Scholar at George Mason University's School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution.
Nicholas Bodanac is a graduate student in the Department of Economics at the University of Sydney, and former economic advisor in the UNAMA mission in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Notes
1 Holl Lute et al., “Performance Peacekeeping,” 85–107.
2 Simmons, The Politics of Technological Progress – While Singapore is a very different case than a post-conflict setting, the lessons about the role of ICT policy and regulation can be useful in a peacekeeping context.
3 The United Nations Peacebuilding Commission's reports (UNGA “Report of the Peacebuilding Commission on Its Third Session”; “Report of the Peacebuilding Commission on Its Fourth Session”; “Report of the Peacebuilding Commission on Its Fifth Session”) to the General Assembly highlight the importance of early intervention by international actors in stabilizing the administrative, political, and economic sectors of post-conflict countries, so that the longer processes and peacebuilding and recovery can take root.
4 IPI, “Uniting Our Strengths for Peace – Politics, Partnership and People,” 11–16.
5 Avgerou, “The Link between ICT and Economic Growth,” 373–86.
6 Dorn, Keeping Watch.
7 For example, on the Department of Peacekeeping Operations’ website, the MINUSTAH mission in Haiti's operations include ‘ … strengthen Haiti's Government institutions and rule-of-law structures … ’, UNMISS in South Sudan is mandated to ‘ … establish conditions for development … ’, and the UNOCI mission in Cote d’Ivoire provides ‘ … good offices … ’ (UNDPKO “Where We Operate”). See also UNGA/UNSC “Civilian Capacity in the Aftermath of Conflict.”
8 Autesserre, The Trouble with the Congo.
9 Karlsrud, “Peacekeeping 4.0,” 141–60.
10 Axworthy and Dorn, “New Technology for Peace & Protection,” 88–100
11 Larrauri and Meier, “Peacekeepers in the Sky.”
12 Dorn, Keeping Watch.
13 Ibid.
14 Etherton and Foster, “Mapping the Mission.”
15 The UNSMIS YouTube channel is archived here: https://www.youtube.com/user/UNSMIS/videos?shelf_id=1&view=0&sort=dd.
16 Heydarpour, “6 Tech Companies”; Lynch, “How to Crowdsource the Syrian Cease-Fire.”
17 Mancini, New Technology, 1–3.
18 Ushahidi is an open source software company that makes mapping and data visualization software.
19 Padelford, “Financing Peacekeeping”; Shimizu, “An Economic analysis of the UN Peacekeeping.”
20 Hentges and Coicaud, “Dividends of Peace”; Sheehan, “The Economics of UN Peacekeeping”; Coleman, The Political Economy of UN Peacekeeping.
21 Carnahan et al., “Economic Impact of Peacekeeping”; “New Data on the Economic Impact.”
22 Beber et al., “Challenges and Pitfalls of Peacekeeping Economies.”
23 Collier et al., Breaking the Conflict Trap; Sambanis, “Short-Term and Long-Term Effects”; Sambanis and Doyle, “No Easy Choices.”
24 Ernst et al., “The Economic Impacts of United Nations Peacekeeping Operations,” 100–17.
25 “Service, Sex, and Security,” 313–30.
26 Ammitzbøll and Tychsen, “The Unintended Economic Consequences of Complex Peace Operations,” 263–82.
27 Jennings and Bøås, “Transactions and Interactions”; “The Unintended Economic Consequences of Complex Peace Operations.”
28 Castells, “Information Technology, Globalization and Social Development.”
29 Norris, Digital Divide, 4–8.
30 Anselmo de Castro and Jensen-Butler, “Demand for Information and Communication Technology-based Services,” 27–50.
31 Milner, “The Digital Divide.”
32 Baliamoune-Lutz, “An Analysis of the Determinates.”
33 Avgerou, “How Can IT Enable Economic Growth in Developing Countries?”
34 Simmons, The Politics of Technological Progress; Vu, “Information and Communication Technology (ICT).”
35 Carnahan et al., “Economic Impact of Peacekeeping”; Letouze et al., “Big Data for Conflict Prevention,” 4–27; Mancini, New Technology, 1–3; Meier, “Crisis Mapping Libya.”
36 McNamara, Enhancing the Livelihoods of the Rural Poor through ICT.
37 Abadie and Gardeazabal “The Economic Costs of Conflict,” 113–32.
38 Norris, Digital Divide.
39 Vu, “ICT as a Source of Economic Growth in the Information Age,” 357–72.
40 Afghanistan Ministry of Finance, National Budget Document.
41 Ibid.
42 Dreher, Méon and Schneider, “The Devil is in the Shadow,” 121–41.
43 King and Levine, “Capital Fundamentalism, Economic Development.”
44 Andreas, Blue Helmets, Black Markets.
45 It is important to note that these numbers only represent the budget allocations for Communications and IT in mission line-item budgets.
46 The process by which we get from capital () to investment (
) is explained in the full model specification in a separate online appendix.
47 Avgerou, “The Link between ICT and Economic Growth,” 373–86.
48 Sambanis, “Using Case Studies to Expand Economic Models,” explains that case studies can be valuable in identifying theoretical and causal channels to improve the accuracy of formal models.
49 UNGA, “Approved Resources for Peacekeeping Operations.”
50 GDP and income numbers are the World Bank's 2013 estimates. http://data.worldbank.org/country/central-african-republic.
51 Jennings and Bøås, “Transactions and Interactions,” 281–95; Ammitzbøll adn Tychsen, “The Unintended Economic Consequences of Complex Peace Operations,” 263–82.
52 Ibid.
53 Pierskalla and Hollenbach, “Technology and Collective Action”; Bailard, “Ethnic Conflict Goes Mobile.”
54 GSMA, “Markets.” GSMA Mobile Intelligence.
55 SES Networks, “Orange Central African Republic.”
56 Millar, “Local Experiences of Liberal Peace,” 573–7.
57 See Flores and Nooruddin's Elections in Hard Times for further discussion on the role of taxes and fiscal space in supporting increased democracy after post-conflict elections.