Will they or won't they: UN peacekeeping deployment to conflicts

This report examines the trends in deployment of peacekeeping troops by the United Nations to conflict areas. I argue that the most important factor in the decision by the UN Security Council of whether or not to send troops is the state of the international system. When there is discord amongst the five permanent (P5) members of the UNSC, peacekeeping missions are significantly less likely. Relatedly, I argue that P5 discord makes individual members less likely to contribute to established missions. I test these and two secondary hypotheses using logit estimation and find support for two of the three hypotheses.