Arming the Peace: Foreign Security Assistance and Human Rights Conditions in Post-Conflict Countries

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Authors
Sullivan, Patricia L.
Blanken, Leo J.
Rice, Ian C.
Subjects
Foreign aid
military aid
arms transfers
human rights
repression
H11
H41
H56
F35
Advisors
Date of Issue
2020
Date
2020
Publisher
Routledge
Language
Abstract
What are the effects of foreign security assistance on the quality of the peace in post-conflict countries? Despite the stakes, and the tremendous amount of weaponry and other forms of foreign military aid flowing to governments of post-conflict countries, the academic literature provides little guidance as to what effects policymakers and practitioners should expect from this type of aid. Military assistance provided to the govern- ment of a country emerging from the turmoil of civil war could enable the state to establish a monopoly on the legitimate use of force, leading to a more durable peace and greater human security. However, we contend that significant flows of military aid and weapons from foreign governments may encourage regimes to adopt more repressive approaches to governance. We investigate the impact of security assis- tance on human rights conditions after 171 internal armed conflicts that ended between 1956 and 2012 using a novel measure of military aid and an instrumented measure of weapons transfers. We find strong evidence that both military aid and arms transfers to post-conflict governments increase state repression.
Type
Article
Description
The article of record as published may be found athttps://doi.org/10.1080/10242694.2018.1558388
Series/Report No
Department
Organization
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
Sponsors
Funder
Format
24 p.
Citation
Patricia L. Sullivan, Leo J. Blanken & Ian C. Rice (2020) Arming the Peace: Foreign Security Assistance and Human Rights Conditions in Post-Conflict Countries, Defence and Peace Economics, 31:2, 177-200,
Distribution Statement
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.
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