Can Regional Organizations help Prevent Civil Wars?

• In Event: Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding

Abstract

A large body of literature demonstrates that international actors, including the UN and other international organizations, can contribute to the resolution of violent civil wars through actions such as mediation and peacekeeping. Some more recent work suggests that actors such as the United Nations can contribute to the prevention of violent conflict in disputes in which it gets involved. However, political considerations and resource constraints limit how and where organizations like the UN can act. In this article, we argue that regional organizations (such as the African Union & the Economic Community of West African States) are well positioned to contribute to conflict prevention because they can respond quickly and their member states are directly affected by contention in the region. We further argue that regional organizations can contribute to violent conflict prevention in two ways—by applying carrots and sticks to convince states and dissidents to pursue nonviolent means of dispute resolution and by helping disputants to find compromise settlements. We examine the role of regional organizations in violent conflict prevention using new data on the behavior of these organizations in a set of territorial and governmental disputes that are not currently violent where dissident organizations make active claims against the state.

Authors

• David E. Cunningham, University of Maryland, College Park

• Marjorie Breslawski, University of Maryland, College Park