International Statebuilding and Civilian Preferences: Evidence from Liberia

• In Event: Peacekeeping: New Challenges & Perspectives

Abstract

Civilian populations are central to successful post-conflict statebuilding processes. To better understand civilians’ preferences for international statebuilding, we argue that civil conflict causes distrust in the government, which in turn shapes the type of international statebuilder civilians prefer. In such contexts, we argue that civilians favor statebuilders with a distinct reputation for contributing positively to peace and security in the country. We also posit that civilians prefer that such statebuilders engage in more active forms of rebuilding--and not just passively monitoring the reform of--security institutions over other bureaucratic institutions. Testing these arguments using a conjoint experiment embedded in two original surveys in Liberia, we find that civilians prefer actors that they believe have a longstanding history of peacebuilding and security-oriented statebuilding over actors that contribute other goods and services, such as public infrastructure provision. We also find, however, that civilians prefer a more hands-off approach to the reconstruction of security institutions. Our results demonstrate not only that civilians have strong preferences about international statebuilding activities but also that the reputational matching of actors with statebuilding activities plays a crucial role therein.

Authors

• Cameron Mailhot, University of Arizona

• Sabrina Karim, Cornell University