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Knowing When to Be An Honest Broker: Impartiality and Third-Party Support for Peace Implementation After Civil Wars

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Abstract:

Rationalist bargaining theory suggests that commitment problems often play a central role in both the outbreak and the perpetuation of violent conflict. Empirical studies indicate that commitment problems are especially pervasive in intrastate disputes, where war termination requires combatants to demobilize or disarm, leaving them highly vulnerable to unilateral defection by the opponent. Ending civil wars therefore often requires the involvement of third parties who help disputants overcome their fears of exploitation through outside monitoring and enforcement. Although this argument has come to be widely accepted, disagreement exists as to whether third parties need to be impartial to serve this function. Whereas some scholars believe that interveners must play the role of an "honest broker," others maintain that because of their greater willingness to commit resources, biased interveners make better guarantors. This paper suggests that these seemingly contradictory views can be reconciled with the help of two additional variables. Specifically, I argue that whether impartiality enhances or undermines the effectiveness of interventions aimed at resolving problems of credible commitment depends on (1) whether the intervener pursues an informational or enforcement strategy and (2) the type of commitment problem that the intervener seeks to address. The empirical part of the paper tests this argument against seventeen cases of third-party intervention aimed at supporting the implementation of negotiated civil war settlements. The results of this test provide substantial support for the hypotheses presented in the theoretical section of the paper, but also indicate that greater attention needs to be paid to the role of selection effects in shaping the relationship between impartiality and intervention outcomes.

Most Common Document Word Stems:

war (106), interven (98), parti (87), commit (82), problem (81), peac (75), settlement (74), implement (68), agreement (65), intervent (62), civil (61), imparti (61), case (59), third (58), success (52), conflict (49), pp (48), negoti (47), one (47), 2002 (39), enforc (38),

Author's Keywords:

Third-Party Intervention; Civil War; Peacekeeping; Impartiality; Commitment Problems; Bargaining Theory
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Name: American Political Science Association
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MLA Citation:

Schmidt, Holger. "Knowing When to Be An Honest Broker: Impartiality and Third-Party Support for Peace Implementation After Civil Wars" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Hilton Chicago and the Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, IL, Aug 28, 2004 <Not Available>. 2009-05-26 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p60206_index.html>

APA Citation:

Schmidt, H. , 2004-08-28 "Knowing When to Be An Honest Broker: Impartiality and Third-Party Support for Peace Implementation After Civil Wars" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Hilton Chicago and the Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, IL Online <.PDF>. 2009-05-26 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p60206_index.html

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Rationalist bargaining theory suggests that commitment problems often play a central role in both the outbreak and the perpetuation of violent conflict. Empirical studies indicate that commitment problems are especially pervasive in intrastate disputes, where war termination requires combatants to demobilize or disarm, leaving them highly vulnerable to unilateral defection by the opponent. Ending civil wars therefore often requires the involvement of third parties who help disputants overcome their fears of exploitation through outside monitoring and enforcement. Although this argument has come to be widely accepted, disagreement exists as to whether third parties need to be impartial to serve this function. Whereas some scholars believe that interveners must play the role of an "honest broker," others maintain that because of their greater willingness to commit resources, biased interveners make better guarantors. This paper suggests that these seemingly contradictory views can be reconciled with the help of two additional variables. Specifically, I argue that whether impartiality enhances or undermines the effectiveness of interventions aimed at resolving problems of credible commitment depends on (1) whether the intervener pursues an informational or enforcement strategy and (2) the type of commitment problem that the intervener seeks to address. The empirical part of the paper tests this argument against seventeen cases of third-party intervention aimed at supporting the implementation of negotiated civil war settlements. The results of this test provide substantial support for the hypotheses presented in the theoretical section of the paper, but also indicate that greater attention needs to be paid to the role of selection effects in shaping the relationship between impartiality and intervention outcomes.

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Document Type: .PDF
Page count: 41
Word count: 11841
Text sample:
Knowing When to Be An Honest Broker: Impartiality and Third-Party Support for Peace Implementation After Civil Wars Holger Schmidt Ph.D. Candidate Columbia University Dept. of Political Science 420 West 118th Street New York NY 10027 hs265@columbia.edu Work in progress; comments welcome but please do not cite without author's permission. Prepared for delivery at the 100th Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association Chicago IL September 2-5 2004. Copyright by the American Political Science Association. Abstract: Rationalist bargaining theory
How Not to End Civil War " in Barbara F. Walter and Jack Snyder eds. Civil Wars Insecurity and Intervention (New York: Columbia University Press 1999) pp. 73-115. Young Oran R. The Intermediaries: Third Parties in International Crises (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press 1967). Zahar Marie-Joelle. "Peace by Unconventional Means: Lebanon's Ta'if Agreement " in Stephen John Stedman Donald Rothchild and Elizabeth M. Cousens eds. Ending Civil Wars: The Implementation of Peace Agreements (Boulder CO: Lynne Rienner 2002) pp.


Similar Titles:
When (and Why) Do Brokers Have to Be Honest? Impartiality and the Effectiveness of Third-Party Support for Negotiated Civil War Settlements, 1945-1999

Biased for Peace? Commitment Problems, Impartiality, and the Effectiveness of Third-Party Guarantees

Knowing When to Be An Honest Broker: Impartiality and Third-Party Support for Peace Implementation After Civil Wars


 
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