Networks of Influence and Support between War and Peace
Hundreds of international actors work in fragile and conflict-affected countries to build peace, prevent violent extremism, reduce poverty, save lives, or rebuild infrastructure. They are connected to each other and to state and non-state actors through formal contracts, informal relationships, and regular coordination meetings. This project, led by professors Susanna Campbell of American University and Jessica Maves Braithwaite of the University of Arizona, studies these networks of influence and support and their effect on indicators of conflict and peace with the aim of creating three new international aid network datasets.
Using new and open-source network data in 20 countries where there were active United Nations peacekeeping or special political missions (SPMs) between 2005 and 2021, the three datasets will focus on areas often overlooked in the international aid sector: (1) formalized coordination efforts of peacebuilding, humanitarian, and development actors, (2) relationships among peacebuilding, humanitarian, and development actors beyond donor-recipient ties, and (3) the presence and role of domestic non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and civil society organizations in these networks as well as less traditional peacebuilding actors like private firms. These datasets will help researchers better understand how dynamic characteristics of aid networks, like density or centrality, affect peace and conflict indicators.
What we’re doing
Building three interoperable datasets.
Organization List Dataset: Actors in this dataset include UN agencies, international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), domestic and international corporations, donors, government actors, domestic NGOs, and other domestic or international civil society actors. Each of these organization types is defined in the codebook and variables included in this dataset focus on the organizational characteristics of these actors.
Contractual Agreements Dataset: We code projects or financial transactions reported to three data sources: (1) United Nations Multi-Partner Trust Fund (MPTF)documents, the (2) Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Creditor Reporting System (OECDCRS) dataset, and the (3) International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) Datastore. For each contractual agreement included in these datasets, we identify the actors involved in the project or transaction, the roles played by each actor, the duration of the relationship between them (project duration), thematic sectors, and regions.
Coordination Structures Dataset: Through this dataset, we track peacebuilding actors’ affiliation with coordination structures across the duration of active peacekeeping operations or political missions. Specifically, we look at UN Clusters. We capture organizations’ affiliation in these networks over time as well as their geographic presence, when possible.
Cleaning at scale with large language models and human coding. Large‑language‑model prompts flag duplicates and misclassifications; trained coders verify each case, speeding processing without sacrificing accuracy.
Country case studies
Sudan – how collaborating with community-led efforts such as Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms is crucial to reach those most in need, especially where official aid struggles.
Colombia – why domestic firms engage in peacebuilding by exploring Colombia’s private sector as a force for post-conflict peace and recovery.
Burundi – how NGO inclusion‑exclusion battles reshape civic space under conditions of democratic backsliding.
Comparative analysis. Network metrics such as density, brokerage and centrality are being linked to event‑level data on violence, service delivery and civic space.
Training the next generation of researchers. 49 research assistants across undergraduate, graduate and doctoral programs at American University and partner institutions have supported the creation of these datasets, collaborated in field research design, as well as co-authored publications.
Why it matters
Existing reference works list mostly international organizations and say little about how actors relate. Our data captures domestic NGOs, government agencies and private firms, plus the relationships that bind them, allowing researchers and practitioners to test how inclusive, well‑connected ecosystems influence peacebuilding success. In Burundi alone we document over 750 actors, an order of magnitude more than legacy datasets, and link them through both funding flows and coordination forums.
Interested in learning more? See our blog post on our data collection process here.
Our Team
Susanna Campbell, American University
Jessica Maves Braithwaite, University of Arizona (Co-PI)
Partner(s)
Project Manager(s)
Cecilia-Cavero Sanchez, The Pennsylvania State University
Madeline Faye Fleishman, University of Virginia
Read the work
Publications forthcoming