Doctoral Dissertation in Political Science: From Peacekeeping to State-Building: Governance, Violence, and the Withdrawal of the United Nations Mission in Liberia

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What is the fate of war-torn countries when peacekeeping missions end? How do states and societies wracked by civil conflict compensate for the gaps in security that seem inevitablely to persist after peacekeepers depart? This project attempts to answer these questions through a case study of the United Nations Mission to Liberia (UNMIL), which is scheduled to withdraw in 2012. Established in the aftermath of Liberia's brutal 14 year civil war, UNMIL has since become inextricably intertwined with every aspect of Liberian social, economic, and political life, from the provision of security to the construction of roads and schools. This project explores the consequences onf UNMIL's withdrawal on the incidence of violence in Liberia, using the shift in authority from international to domestic actors as a lens through which to illuminate the dynamics of state-building and state/society relations in a post-war setting.This research proceeds in three steps: qualitative interviews with UN, government, and civil society representatives; econometric analysis of large-N, two-part panel survey on the causes and correlates of violence in rural Liberia; and high-frequency data collection on evolving levels of violence in Monrovia via SMS text-messaging ("crowd sourcing"). The data resulting from these activities will be shared with other scholars and the public. Policy makers will be briefed on any results.