The political economy of peacekeeping: unemployment, violence, and trust towards peacekeepers. Evidence from Somalia

What explains the discrepancy in the support towards Peacekeepers? We take this debate beyond the violence and security question to examine the association between citizens' economic aspirations and support towards peacekeepers deployed in their communities. We theorize that economically disadvantaged locals drive individual support towards peacekeepers due to their higher expectations of benefiting economically in a peaceful and secure environment. We conduct a survey with more than 700 citizens across three cities in South Central Somalia to test this conjecture. Results from our mediation analyses show that the level of support for the peacekeepers is mainly among the poor, who expect to benefit economically as a result of improved security which they attribute to peacekeepers. These findings are consistent with qualitative accounts. Furthermore, key results hold when replacing threat perceptions from the survey with real-time ACLED violence data. Our findings have important policy implications. Individuals' support for peacekeepers tends to be higher when they have an economic incentive in the peace.