Paths to intervention

What explains the UN’s selective response to humanitarian crises

Datos Bibliográficos

ID5083036
AutoresMartin Binder (0000-0002-5053-3804, Global Governance Unit, WZB Berlin Social Science Center, autor de correspondencia)
Año2015
Volumen52
Número6
Páginas712-726
Fecha de publicación2015-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Peace Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0022-3433 • E-ISSN: 1460-3578
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0022343315585847
OpenAlexW2227921586
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas24
Referencias citadas58

Over the past two decades, the United Nations Security Council has responded more strongly to some humanitarian crises than to others. This variation in Security Council action raises the important question of what factors motivate United Nations intervention. This article offers a configurational explanation of selective Security Council intervention that integrates explanatory variables from different theories of third-party intervention. These variables are tested through a comparison of 31 humanitarian crises (1991-2004) using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. The analysis shows that a large extent of human suffering and substantial previous involvement in a crisis by international institutions are the key explanatory conditions for coercive Security Council action, but only when combined with negative spillover effects to neighboring countries (path 1) or with low capabilities of the target state (path 2). These results are highly consistent and explain 85% of Security Council interventions after the end of the Cold War. The findings suggest that the Council's response to humanitarian crises is not random, but follows specific patterns that are indicated by a limited number of causal paths

Economics · Human rights · Humanitarian intervention · International security · Intervention (counseling) · Political science · Politics · Psychological intervention · Qualitative comparative analysis · Security council · Spillover effect · Statistics · International Development and Aid · Law · Mathematics · Political Conflict and Governance · Psychology · Public Administration · Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research