Networks of Influence and Support between War and Peace
Project Summary
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.
Interested in learning more? See our blog post on our data collection process here.
Funder(s)
Award(s)
$336,505 (NSF)
Principal Investigator(s)
Susanna Campbell, American University
Jessica Maves Braithwaite, University of Arizona (Co-PI)
Partner(s)
Project Manager(s)
Alex Bruens, University of Arizona
Ariana Schmidt, American University
Hatem Zayed, American University
Project Status
Active