Beyond Keeping the Peace: Can Peacekeepers Reduce Ethnic Divisions After Violence?

Existing research suggests that international peacekeeping contributes to conflict resolution and helps sustain peace, often in locations with hostile ethnic divisions. However, it is unclear whether the presence of peacekeepers actually reduces underlying ethnocentric views and parochial behaviors that sustain those divisions. We examine the effects of NATO peacekeeper deployments on ethnocentrism in postwar Bosnia. While peacekeepers were not randomly deployed in Bosnia, we find that highly ethnocentric attitudes were common across Bosnia at the onset of peacekeeper deployments, reducing endogeneity concerns. To measure ethnocentrism, we employ a variety of survey instruments as well as a behavioral experiment (the dictator game) with ethnic treatments across time. We find that regions with peacekeepers exhibit lower levels of ethnocentrism in comparison to regions without peacekeepers, and this effect persists even after peacekeepers have departed. The peacekeeping effect is also robust to a sub-sample of ethnic Bosnian Serbs, suggesting that peacekeeper deployments can have positive effects on diminishing ethnocentrism, even when local communities are especially hostile to their presence. Our results speak to the potential long-term role of peacekeepers in reducing tensions among groups in conflict

Pride amid Prejudice: The Influence of LGBT+ Rights Activism in a Socially Conservative Society

How do mass publics react to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT+) advocacy efforts in socially conservative societies? We consider how the first-ever LGBT+ Pride in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina influences ordinary citizens' attitudes and behavior regarding LGBT+ support. Using nationwide and local panel surveys, we find that support for LGBT+ activism increased locally after the Pride but did not diffuse nationwide, signaling how proximity mechanisms reinforce Pride effects. In survey experiments, we show that subjects are responsive to both mobilization and counter-mobilization appeals by local activists. We also find evidence from a behavioral experiment that the Pride had a positive effect on shifting the allocation of financial resources toward local pro-LGBT+ activists and away from opposition groups. Finally, in-depth interviews with local LGBT+ activists underscore the challenges facing LGBT+ activism in socially conservative societies but also point to the substantial possibilities of collective action on behalf of minorities at risk

Fight or Flight in Civil War? Evidence from Rebel-Controlled Syria

Abstract Faced with prospects of a civil war escalating on their doorstep, ordinary people must decide whether to take up arms and join the fight, to stay in place and seek shelter in confines of the conflict zone, or to flee their homes in search of safer locations. Using original survey and experimental data from the ongoing conflict in Syria, we try to understand how people facing conflict make critical life-and-death decisions. Drawing on a range of hypotheses from the existing literature, we find compelling evidence that in-group ties and grievance motivations explain fight vs. flight decision-making at the individual level. Using well-balanced samples of over 300 Free Syrian Army and Islamist fighters, civilian non-combatants, and externally displaced refugees from actively contested regions of Syria, we observe that people with strong in-group bonds and out-group aversions are more likely to stay and fight. In contrast, refugees are far less revenge-seeking and more willing to negotiate for peace. Overall, our research suggests that heterogeneous preferences and motivations within subpopulations of civil war participants can create serious coordination problems with practical implications for conflict duration and outcomes. 2 How do different people respond to fight or flight impulses in civil war? Despite a rich theoretical literature on this topic, it is not clear what makes some people risk life and limb to mobilize for violence, others to remain frozen in place in conflict zones despite high probabilities of being injured or killed, while others take considerable travel risks to seek safety in another location. Rational actor models face challenges by high uncertainty in the estimation of risk and reward. Psychological models are limited because of empirical challenges of getting into the cognitive and emotional mindset of rebels and refugees at the critical moment of decisionmaking. At best, most of our evidence about fight or flight motivations in civil war are post-hoc, with selection on survivors, and stated motivations may be potentially endogenous to conflict processes and outcomes. Given the importance of the topic but empirical challenges and theoretical unknowns, we attempt to shed light on fight or flight decision-making by examining attitudes and preferences in real time as civil war is actively ongoing. Using survey and experimental evidence from contested areas of Syria, we seek to evaluate a wide range of hypotheses from the literature on civil war participation. In Syria, conflict is still unfolding and outcomes remain uncertain. Rebel fighters and civilians in Syria who participated in our study do not know if they will survive the conflict. The field interviews for this study were conducted at great personal risk. We understood the dangers involved in this project and took necessary precautions that limited the scope of our sampling and research design. Though we will readily admit and speak extensively about limitations of inference from our data, we hope that our efforts will advance our theoretical understanding of the choices people make under threat of violence. Motivatio

Speciesism and Animal Rights in Ukraine

Survey experiments on violence and speciesis