Deployment Of Troops Research Articles

Violence reduction or relocation?

The article contributes to the research on local effects of United Nations peacekeeping operations (UNPKOs) on conflict dynamics. Focusing on spatial effects we distinguish between effects of peacekeeping presence on conflict intensity in a given area (violence reduction) and effects on the levels of violence in surrounding locations (violence relocation). We expect that the effects of peacekeeping presence differ with force projection capabilities of troop deployments. Our analyses are based on data covering the two most recent UNPKOs and violent events in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2000 to 2014, allowing for a geographically and temporally disaggregated approach. The results show that PKOs reduce the local level of violence where they are stationed, particularly when better equipped. However, we find that PKO presence can also lead to shifts in the areas affected by conflict.

Building Trust: The Effect of US Troop Deployments on Public Opinion in Peru

AbstractSince the 1950s, US military personnel have taken on an increasingly diverse set of responsibilities, including less traditional roles delivering disaster aid and engaging in public diplomacy. Focusing on a particular subset of deployments, humanitarian and civic-assistance deployments to Latin America, we examine the effect that a US military presence can have on public opinion in the host country. We focus on the microfoundations of popular support and use survey data and newly collected subnational data on deployments to examine the effect of these deployments on mass attitudes toward the US military and government in Peru. We find that these deployments do improve perceptions of the US military and government, and correlate with assessments of US influence that are more positive. Our findings bolster the conclusions of previous research that shows how aid can both improve public attitudes toward the donor country and address the foreign aid attribution problem.

Parliamentary war powers and the role of international law in foreign troop deployment decisions: The US-led coalition against “Islamic State” in Iraq and Syria

This article addresses the degree of parliamentary involvement in decisions to deploy armed forces abroad. It observes how the recourse to force by the US-led military coalition fighting against the so-called Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIL, or Da’esh) in Iraq and Syria seems to fit into a broader trend of increased parliamentary control over war-and-peace decisions on both sides of the Atlantic. Inasmuch as international legal arguments can and do play a role in parliamentary debates and concomitant resolutions, this trend carries the potential of contributing to the compliance pull of the jus ad bellum. Against this background, the article explores to what extent newfound war powers on the part of national parliaments go hand in hand with recourse to international legal arguments. The article engages this question through an analysis of the dialogue between the executive and legislative branches in a number of countries (in particular Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Canada) pertaining to the participation in the US-led coalition against IS.

UN Troop Deployment and Preventing Violence Against Civilians in Darfur

ABSTRACTDoes the presence of UN peacekeeping force lower civilian fatalities at the local level? If it does, is it because of their coercive military capacity or for other reasons such as their roles in monitoring and reporting violent atrocities? To explore these questions, I study the deployment of peacekeeping units in Darfur and its impact on violence against civilians. Using original geocoded data of UN deployments before and after the intervention, I examine what aspects of such deployments impact one-sided civilian killings by government and rebel groups. Results indicate that deploying UN peacekeepers in an area restrains belligerent from targeting civilians. However, the military capacity of peacekeepers is not a significant predictor of violence against civilians. While their ability to defend themselves is extremely important for peacekeepers, these findings caution against the militarization trend in UN peacekeeping and seek to reshift focus on other substantive aspects of peacekeeping.

Voted out: Regime type, elections and contributions to United Nations peacekeeping operations

Previous research has suggested that leaders of democratic regimes are particularly willing to contribute troops to United Nations peacekeeping operations because backing ‘liberal’ peacekeeping allows them to support the diffusion of liberal institutions. However, evidence used to sustain this argument is based on contribution patterns during the decade of peacekeeping that followed the Cold War. In this article, we argue that there has been a reversal in the relative willingness of democratic and non-democratic governments to provide the United Nations with peacekeepers since then. Specifically, we propose that the introduction of more ‘robust’ forms of peacekeeping during the 1990s has rendered democratic governments reluctant to contribute large numbers of peacekeepers to United Nations operations because elected leaders are now concerned that voters may object to the deployment of national troops to high-risk humanitarian missions in which there is no clear national interest. By contrast, non-democratic leaders partly discount public opinion because they are less reliant on popular support to retain power. Thus, when non-democrats see that contributing troops to United Nations peacekeeping will bring them reputational and/or resource benefits, they are willing to contribute peacekeepers — and on a large scale. We test our claims quantitatively. We find that since the 1990s, democratic governments have remained more likely than non-democrats to contribute some troops to United Nations peacekeeping operations, but non-democratic governments have been more likely to make large-scale contributions. We also find that governments have been especially reluctant to make sizeable contributions to peacekeeping when elections have been on the horizon.

Cut Short? United Nations Peacekeeping and Civil War Duration to Negotiated Settlements

While much literature on peacekeeping seeks to determine the effect of United Nations (UN) intervention on post-conflict peace processes, most peacekeeping operations (PKOs) are deployed to active conflicts. The limited research on peacekeeping in active civil conflicts suggests that robust PKOs reduce hostilities. Yet, if PKOs serve to extend conflict duration, even lowered hostilities can yield greater destruction over time. We thus explore the effect of peacekeeping on conflict duration. We argue that PKOs with larger troop deployments are better able to increase the cost of combat, improve information sharing between belligerents, and provide security guarantees, thus reducing the time to negotiated resolutions. Using fine-grained data on monthly peacekeeping personnel commitments and observations of ongoing conflict between combatants, we examine how variations in mission deployments affect the success of UN peacekeeping in ending civil conflicts. As expected, our findings indicate that larger troop deployments shorten war duration to negotiated resolution.

Moral Hazard and Financial Crises: Evidence from American Troop Deployments

Moral Hazard and Financial Crises: Evidence from American Troop Deployments

Political imperatives and military preparations: New insights into why South Africa’s 1998 intervention in Lesotho went awry

ABSTRACTIn September 1998 South African troops crossed into Lesotho to restore stability to the small mountain kingdom that had been roiled by protests for months. Operation Boleas encountered heavy resistance – in the ensuing chaos dozens died and the towns of Maseru, Mohale’s Hoek and Mafeteng were damaged. Media and scholarly commentary on the intervention was scathing, but in the rush to judge there has been insufficient effort to chronicle and clarify. This article uses declassified archival records and interviews with policy makers to provide a more exhaustive explanation of how the Mandela Administration decided on the deployment of troops into Lesotho. It focuses on the difficulty South African officials had in aligning their political objectives with the military exigencies of the rapidly changing crisis. This re-examination of the Lesotho intervention rectifies historical inaccuracies while also identifying potential problems that policy makers should be conscious of when considering future peace missions.

Uma análise do recrutamento e formação de reservistas na RMR (Região Metropolitana do Recife) e sua importância para a Mobilização Nacional

TThis study analyzes how the Seventh Military Region (7th RM), subordinate to the Military Command of the Northeast (MCN - CMNE), manages the recruitment and training of reservists of the Brazilian Army in the Metropolitan Region of Recife (MRR - RMR). Thus, we understand its importance for National Mobilization in the face of a hypothetical need to expand the capabilities of the Army in the Amazon region through its numerical enlargement and deployment of troops. To this end, this study refers to the recent global and regional instabilities, and analyzes the geopolitical importance of the Northeast region of Brazil. Next, we explore the vision of scholars who studied this issue as well as the federal laws and documents produced by the Ministry of Defense and the Brazilian Army on mobilization and recruitment. In this research, we analyze the role of the 7th RM in the recruitment and training of reservists in the RMR and draw conclusions on the importance of the management of the Mandatory Military Service (MMS - SMO) in times of peace.

Fighting for Atlanta: Tactics, Terrain, and Trenches in the Civil War by Earl J. Hess

Reviewed by: Fighting for Atlanta: Tactics, Terrain, and Trenches in the Civil Warby Earl J. Hess Thomas Flagel Fighting for Atlanta: Tactics, Terrain, and Trenches in the Civil War. By Earl J. Hess. Civil War America. ( Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2018. Pp. xvi, 391. $45.00, ISBN 978-1-4696-4342-7.) Earl J. Hess's latest volume adds more evidence to one of his central verdicts, that in the course of Civil War campaigns, a major factor in their execution and outcome involved extensive use of entrenchments. Concerning the contest for Atlanta, Hess argues that the four-month event saw some of the most intense and enduring uses of temporary fieldworks in any western theater campaign. He also views William Tecumseh Sherman as far more adept at blending entrenchment and maneuver than the overly cautious Joseph E. Johnston or the comparatively rash John Bell Hood. True to intent, Hess focuses almost exclusively on the interplay between command decisions, troop movements, and human alterations to natural topography. Though he aims to bond environmental historiography to military tactical studies, Hess recognizes his work remains heavily weighted to the latter. Arranged chronologically, from combat around Dalton and Resaca, Georgia, in May 1864 to Federal securement of the Gate City that October, the text epitomizes Hess's penchant for order. It also reflects his exceptional accumulation of research material, including copious War Department reports, modern archaeological surveys, and primary source collections from an impressive number of archives. The book's minimalistic maps provide little sense of place and landscape, but its high-resolution images of forts and trenches (compliments of George N. Barnard, a civilian photographer contracted by the Union) vividly illuminate the construction methods and available materials for both armies. Much like the wartime photos, Hess brings rich detail to combat engineering, resource management, equipment requirements, and troop deployment. These and similar specifics will find a receptive audience among military historians, war colleges, and battlefield [End Page 709]guides. Arguably the lessons herein would also be relevant in overland operations such as Afghanistan, where short-range weapons and rugged landscape prevail. For most other readers, the text may seem long on specifics yet short on the human element, with one great exception—the chapters covering the contest for Kennesaw Mountain. A deft synopsis of Hess's 2013 text on the subject, these chapters detail the tangible human pathos of trench warfare, with each side exposed to the relentless elements, engrossing stench of rotting corpses, and exhausting fears of artillery and sharpshooters. Altogether the section reads like a haunting precursor to the battles of Ypres and Verdun. Otherwise, general audiences may be better served by Hess's encompassing Field Armies and Fortifications in the Civil War: The Eastern Campaigns, 1861–1864(Chapel Hill, 2005) and more contextual Civil War Logistics: A Study of Military Transportation(Baton Rouge, 2017). Concerning whether the Atlanta campaign was unmatched in the western theater in its use of temporary fieldworks, students of Vicksburg may find Hess less than convincing. On Sherman's skill in using fortifications as offensive and defensive weapons, Hess's point is more solidly grounded. Perhaps the most poignant contribution involves an invaluable reminder. As we attempt to understand historical phenomena through our two-dimensional media of print and maps, we must take pause and contemplate the four-dimensional reality of space and time in which our subjects lived and died. For the citizen-soldiers and their officers who struggled in the fight for Atlanta and in many contests like it, their first and most rational impulse was to seek vantage points within the earth itself. If we are to better comprehend how the Civil War transpired, we would do well to view history from the same position. Thomas Flagel Columbia State Community College Copyright © 2019 The Southern Historical Association

The events of April 1978 in Afghanistan and the subsequent deployment of Soviet troops: some assessments of events and key personalities

The events of April 1978 in Afghanistan and the subsequent deployment of Soviet troops: some assessments of events and key personalities

Pork, parties, and priorities: Partisan politics and overseas military deployments

Since the end of World War II, the USA has maintained a sizable military presence around the world. As one of the main mechanisms that the USA uses to exercise its military power abroad, it is a defining characteristic of the international order. Using time-series cross-sectional models and case evidence, I show that, in addition to strategic considerations, the President’s party strength in Congress and the proportion of moderates in the Senate are key determinants of US deployment outcomes. This finding adds to the literature on causes of US troop deployments by examining the incentives for deployments within US politics.

‘Duties In Aid of the Civil Power’: The Deployment of the Army to Glasgow, 31 January to 17 February 1919

On 31 January 1919 a demonstration in Glasgow in support of an unofficial strike for a 40-hour working week descended into violence, the ‘Battle of George Square’, probably set off by an ill-judged police baton charge. Troops called by the Sheriff of Lanarkshire began to arrive late that evening, and six tanks arrived on the following Monday. The ‘Battle’ and the subsequent military deployment have entered the mythology of Scottish socialism and, more recently, of Scottish nationalism. The strike had an overtly political aim: to force the Government to step in to regulate industry. Many in government believed that it had a more profoundly political, or even revolutionary aim. No detailed account of the troop deployment has yet been written, and in this gap mythology has flourished. This paper is intended to fill that gap and to challenge the myths.

One hundred years on: the Russian revolution and Anglo-Russian relations today

ABSTRACTWhile Anglo-Russian relations have plummeted following the Skripal poisoning in March 2018 it is not the first time that the relationship between the two countries has broken down. But while many mark the Cold War as the start of the problems between Russia and Britain, their genesis extends much further back, to the Russian Revolution of 1917. The consequential deployment of British troops on Russian soil during the Allied Intervention, the violence of the Red Terror, and the inherent friction between British imperialism and revolutionary Bolshevism, created deep mistrust between the two countries. While the future of Anglo-Russian relations remains unclear, history has shown that Russia cannot be ignored. It will always have a role to play in Britain’s foreign affairs and in order to deal with Russia effectively, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office needs to increase its expertise on the country – including an understanding of Russian history.

UN involvement and civil war peace agreement implementation

Many studies argue that third-party guarantees, such as those of the United Nations, increase the chances that belligerents will sign peace agreements, but it is unclear how third-party involvement affects the implementation of such agreements. We unpack the relationship between UN involvement and peace agreement success by focusing on the risk of defections during the peace accord implementation phase. We argue that two types of commitment problems, namely involuntary and voluntary defections, emerge from the characteristics of the peace process itself as well as from new opportunities available to rebel groups. We expect that shifts in relative power and polarized voting lead to lower implementation scores overall, but that the deployment of UN troops has a mitigating effect, thereby increasing the prospects of sustainable peace agreements. Using data from the Peace Accords Matrix Implementation Dataset from 1989 to 2010 and personnel commitments to UN peacekeeping operations, we find evidence that large UN missions are better placed to support the implementation and longevity of the peace process.

Parliamentary involvement, party ideology and majority-opposition bargaining: Belgian participation in multinational military operations

ABSTRACTThis article examines the impact of parliamentary involvement in troop deployment decisions on restrictions on military mandates by examining the Belgian contribution to the 2011 Libya intervention and the coalition against the self-proclaimed Islamic State. More specifically, we analyse (1) the effect of party ideology on mandate preferences, and (2) the impact of bargaining between majority and opposition parties on the outcome of mandate negotiations. Our case study demonstrates that left-wing parties show a strong inclination toward imposing restrictions on the use of military force beyond humanitarian goals, while right-wing preferences tend to depend on the national interests at stake in the operation. With regard to majority-opposition bargaining, our study shows that the impact of opposition parties is dependent on the degree of contention between government and opposition parties, as well as on the extent to which the executive needs to seek support across its own majority.

Taming the UK's war prerogative: the rationale for reform

AbstractThis paper assesses the current state of the war prerogative, specifically focusing on deployment decisions. It outlines the constitutional position over troop deployments, scrutinises recent reform efforts and problematises the rationale underpinning those reforms. The paper proceeds along one simple normative claim: that against the backdrop of frequent interventions, the publication of theIraq Inquiryand a series of Bills that have sought to statutorise deployment decisions, less use-of-force is better than more use-of-force, and constitutional arrangements ought to reflect this. The paper begins with an exegesis of the most recent attempt to bring deployment decisions onto a statutory footing, focusing on: (a) the difficulties and concomitant problems in defining ‘conflict decisions’; and (b) whether it could make deployment decisions reviewable. The paper then seeks to examine the rationale for reform, arguing that the main impetus behind the series of efforts has been to democratise the process of troop deployments when instead they should focus on use-of-force reduction.

Courting convivencia: Hispano-Arab identity and Spanish women’s Orientalism in the Franco regime’s years of “unbearable solitude” (1946–1950)

ABSTRACTThe disturbing duality of the figure of the Moor as ancestral “other” in Spanish culture was refashioned during the first part of the twentieth century as a result of the colonial campaigns in Morocco (1909–1927) and, most memorably, the deployment of North African troops on the Rebel side during the Civil War. Propagandistic efforts to justify their involvement had a significant afterlife via the symbolic privileging of the Moor and exaltation of Hispano-Arab amity during the early Franco regime when it pursued a “courtship” with newly decolonized Arab states in a bid to counteract international ostracism. Locating this courtship within the wider framework of the promotion of hispanidad, this article investigates the reception of overlapping Francoist discourses on raza and Hispano-Arab identity in a selection of contemporaneous Orientalist romance novels by young Spanish women authors whose engagement with such concerns has hitherto been overlooked. It interrogates the strikingly pro-miscegenation stance evident in their reworking of the more conservative popular 1920s British desert-romance genre and considers the possible meanings of their affective espousal of convivencia in the postwar climate of profound social cleavages and violently prescribed gender identities that intersected with aspects of the regime’s “self-Orientalization”.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Troop and Weapon Deployments

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Troop and Weapon Deployments

Repression of the Neo-Biafra Movement – Measures, Responses, and Consequences

This paper analyses the measures, reactions, and consequences of the repression of the neo-Biafra movement in Nigeria using longitudinal qualitative research. To go about this, the paper looks at the political context within which the movement operates, it objectives, and its activities are described. The movement started in September 1999 in reaction to perceived marginalisation and victimisation of Nigerians of Igbo ethnic origins by the state. The movement has had visible impacts on Nigeria’s democratic experience, and by extension, the political system. The Nigerian state responded with several measures, including the deployment of military troops in what is known as “Operation Python Dance II” (or Egwu Eke II) as part of measures to cope with the movement’s activities. The paper observed other measures of repression adopted by the state and how the activists have changed or adapted their responses to state repression. The paper also observed that these measures have had several consequences on the resilience of the activists.