Meg Shannon

CU Political Science Professor Wins Book Award for Pathbreaking Research on UN Peacekeeping

Anonymous — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 16:18:12 +0000

CU Political Science Professor Wins Book Award for Pathbreaking Research on UN Peacekeeping Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 02/10/2023 - 09:18

Kaysie Larson , Andy Baker

The United Nations is one of the most controversial institutions in the world. One of its primary roles is to organize and execute peacekeeping missions, which are intended to help maintain peace in countries previously torn apart by civil war. Yet some UN peacekeeping missions have gone horribly and notoriously wrong, and many questions remain about their effectiveness. Enter CU Associate Professor Megan Shannon, who has brought systematic data to bear on this question in order to move beyond anecdotes and guesswork. Shannon’s efforts in doing so have resulted in some of the definitive scholarship on this question, as her 2019 book Peacekeeping in the Midst of War won the best book award (for 2018/2019) from the Conflict Processes section of the American Political Science Association (APSA).

Shannon and her coauthors argue that peacekeeping missions, while highly imperfect, do mitigate human suffering in the wake of civil wars and are thus an indispensable tool for promoting peace and human security. Battlefield deaths and violence against civilians decline after UN peacekeepers arrive. To be successful, however, the peacekeeping force must be properly constituted. In particular, Shannon finds that large groups of armed peacekeepers are more effective at preventing violence than smaller unarmed groups of peacekeepers, even if the peacekeepers never fire their weapons. Armed peacekeepers provide a powerful deterrent to violence between previously warring groups. Additionally, the nature of the conflict itself influences the success of peacekeeping operations. Civil wars that feature infighting among rebel groups are particularly hard to quell.

Besides conducting easy-to-read analyses of quantitative data on peacekeeping and violence, Shannon and her team conducted in-depth case studies of Côte d'Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of Congo to see precisely how and why different kinds of peacekeeping operations work differently. Says Shannon, “Writing a book and conducting these case studies really provided us with the freedom to observe precisely what peacekeepers were doing and how their activities influence the mission’s success.” Her deep knowledge of peacekeeping operations and these cases have also informed her thoughts about the success of other potential peacekeeping missions. For example, Shannon thinks that deploying UN peacekeepers to Afghanistan in 2021 would have been a bad idea. To enter quickly, the peacekeeping force would have been small. The Taliban, emboldened by its recent rise to power, would have probably overwhelmed it.

Peacekeeping in the Midst of War portrays peacekeeping in ways that have previously been overlooked. Congratulations to Professor Shannon on her APSA award and for writing an important book that can inform activists and policymakers around the world.

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2016 Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy Grant Winner

Anonymous — Thu, 25 May 2017 20:22:30 +0000

2016 Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy Grant Winner Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 05/25/2017 - 14:22

Emma Piller

Graduate Student in Political Science

The Department of Political Science would like to congratulate Ph.D candidate Tim Passmore on his receiving the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy grant of 2016. Passmore was one of 20 to receive this national grant out of 670 applicants. In addition to this grant, he received the Harold D. Lasswell Award for the most outstanding project in international relations.

Being awarded this competitive grant was beyond anything Passmore expected. “I got the letter in the mail,” he said. “It arrived earlier than they said I would hear, so I thought I was part of the first cut,” he said. This grant will help Passmore continue his research in finishing his dissertation and other fieldwork opportunities he’ll plan for the end of the summer.

His dissertation, Pacifying the Peacekeepers, focuses on United Nations peacekeeping operations. These operations take place in countries of conflict where members of the UN send their own military into these missions. There are currently 16 missions occurring worldwide with more than 91,000 military personnel made of a variety of countries.

“Bangladesh is the number one contributor for military personnel to peacekeeping missions, which is a huge surprise to people who don’t know much about peacekeeping,” Passmore said. “Ghana is a country that at any given time, about 20 percent of its military is deployed across the ocean in other countries in peacekeeping missions. This is huge considering the U.S. deploys a fraction of one percent of its military.”

The question Passmore asks is understanding what countries are contributing to these peacekeeping missions and why. “So we intend to think that if you send your military, you have certain connections with the country that has a conflict, but actually, it could be that you just want to reap some benefits for your own domestic policy,” he said.

When a country becomes a democracy, their militaries lose status, influence, and often times government funding. This loss of power can be frustrating to the military, and this plays a factor in destabilizing their democracy. Recently-democratized states are thus at risk of falling back into a military dictatorship.

The UN peacekeeping missions are a strategy used to distract and placate these militaries. “By sending them to foreign missions,” Passmore explains, “they’re out of the way; they can’t incite a military coup. They’re paid by the United Nations, trained, and kept active. This reduces the domestic threat of the military.”

Another critical benefit is that “it frees up government money to spend on other social spending, important in a democracy.” These changes hopefully strengthen the democracy and reduce domestic problems.

Although Passmore’s background is in terrorism studies and international security, his advisor, Megan Shannon, an associate professor at CU, had been conducting research in UN peacekeeping while he was a research assistant for her.

“I think the more I got into it, the more I realized there were a lot of unanswered questions in this area. This is a phenomenon that’s happening now and it’s attempting to alleviate conflict and suffering in various countries,” he said. “Any research that can contribute to understanding how to better carry that operation out would make it all the more worthwhile doing.”

Other exciting opportunities he looks forward to are traveling to both San Francisco to present the second instalment of his dissertation and the UN headquarters in New York to conduct interviews with staff there.

Passmore attributes the majority of his success to the community in the political science department. “CU has been a great place to study and I’ve had a very good experience the last four years here. The political science department is very close-knit. We have a very supportive faculty,” he said. “I don’t think I would’ve had the same opportunities at another university. It’s just been a very collegial environment. I’m very grateful for that.”

His gracious advice for the CU community is as follows: “I think one thing that has become very apparent to me is the importance of character. No one really talks about personal character anymore. Society talks about process, efficiency, and success at any cost, but I’ve found that in my experience, character is one of the most significant predictors of success.”

Passmore emphasizes that working hard at the little things with integrity is what prepares and sets one up for moving on to greater challenges. His sincerity and humility are evident in his appraisal of both his personal achievements and experience at CU, and we wish him the best in his next projects.

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United Nations peacekeeping dynamics and the duration of post-civil conflict peace.

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 21:35:55 +0000

United Nations peacekeeping dynamics and the duration of post-civil conflict peace. Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/19/2017 - 15:35

Hultman L, Kathman JD, Shannon M. Conflict Management and Peace Science. 33 (3) (July 01, 2016): 231-249.

Abstract:
How do the qualities of United Nations peacekeeping operations (PKOs) influence the duration of peace after civil wars? Recent work shows that UN peacekeeping extends the duration of peace. However, this work has only been able to assess whether the presence or absence of UN missions affects post-conflict peace processes. Such analyses offer little in the way of policy prescriptions for planning and structuring PKOs to effectively pursue their goals. By employing fine-grained data on the personnel composition of PKOs, and generating expectations from rationalist bargaining models of civil war, we argue that the number and type of personnel deployed to a PKO influence the UN’s ability guarantee peace by addressing the information and commitment problems that so often lead to the collapse of post-conflict peace. We analyze how the composition of missions influences the duration of peace, finding that, as the number of UN military troops deployed increases, the chance of civil war recurring decreases. However, other personnel types do not have the same effect. We conclude that the effectiveness of post-conflict peacekeeping lies in the ability of PKOs to alleviate commitment problems through the deployment of military troops that are able to defend the peace.

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2016 Glenn Palmer Prize Winner

Anonymous — Tue, 07 Mar 2017 22:48:53 +0000

2016 Glenn Palmer Prize Winner Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 03/07/2017 - 15:48

The Political Science Department would like to congratulate one of our own, Megan Shannon, as a winner of the 2016 Glenn Palmer Prize from Peace Science Society (International). It was awarded to the best publication in Conflict Management and Peace Science, for “United Nations peacekeeping dynamics and the duration of post-civil conflict peace,” by Lisa Hultman, Jacob Kathman, and Megan Shannon.

In their article, Hultman, Kathman and Shannon construct a fine-grained dataset regarding the types of deployment and personnel strength of UN peacekeepers. The authors show that the deployment of armed troops is effective in increasing the durability of post-conflict settlements. In contrast, utilizing unarmed observers appears to have no effect on extending the durability of peace.

The Palmer Prize honors Glenn Palmer’s contributions to Conflict Management and Peace Science during his 13-year run as editor of the journal. It is awarded to the best paper published in Conflict Management and Peace Science and carries a prize of $500.

Read the Publication here

Learn More About Peace Science Society (International) Here

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Meet Meg Shannon

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 16:20:28 +0000

Meet Meg Shannon Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 10/07/2016 - 10:20

Casey Van Divier

Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Program

The average American drives 37 miles in a day and nearly 300 miles in a week.* That number approaches the distance of about 316 miles from Amsterdam to Paris, a commute that CU professor Meg Shannon made while she was in graduate school. However, Shannon didn’t drive this distance.

She biked it.

“I saw a commercial one day advertising this weeklong ride from Amsterdam to Paris,” she said. “After September 11^th, I felt like I needed a change, and that commercial just seemed to speak to me.”

Years later, Shannon continues to stay active with the hobbies available to her now that she lives in Boulder.

“I love hiking and being outdoors, and looking at the Flatirons every day,” she said. Shannon came to Boulder in 2014 to work as an associate professor in the department of political science. She specializes in international conflict management, teaching classes on international law, international organization and world peace.

“This is my dream school and my dream job,” she said. “The faculty here are really cooperative, and I like that there’s a strong presence of female faculty.”

This cooperative environment has led Shannon to further develop her research on international conflict. She started researching with two graduate students upon arrival at ��ý�Ļ��Ʒ, and two other graduate students have since joined them in their studies.

“We study U.N. peacekeeping, and in our spare time we read about it and talk to each other about it,” she said. “This summer we had a reading group to keep our brains fresh and engaged. We met a couple of times a month to talk about new research in political science that we were interested in.”

Shannon is co-authoring several papers with CU graduate students and writing a book on the subject of U.N. peacekeeping and violence in civil wars. She is hoping to complete her manuscript by the spring, after which she may shift her focus of study.

“I took a trip to Israel this summer. It was the first time I’d been since college and it reminded me how much I enjoyed my senior thesis on how the Israeli peace agreements have influenced Palestinian human rights,” she said. “I’m thinking of going back to that, to look more broadly into how peace agreements between countries influence the human rights of the populations that live there.”

However, regardless of what her studies lead her to, Shannon plans to stay in Colorado for the time being. Boulder’s not only a place where she can enjoy the outdoors – it’s also the place where she was introduced to her significant other through a long line of contacts.

“He’s my real estate agent’s assistant’s cousin’s husband’s brother,” she said. The couple is now married and living in a place where Shannon can cultivate her teaching ability to new heights.

“This school really emphasizes teaching much more than anywhere else I’ve taught,” she said. “I’ve gone to at least one workshop every month, and it amazes me how many faculty go, and how they’re faculty of all ranks. They’re willing to stay current, and all of us are looking into how we can keep students engaged.”

*Statistics from U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration

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