Peace and security ad hoc coalitions: engagement of the Global South and the Global North

Abstract

The Global South has become progressively involved in the governance of peace and security within the United Nations (UN) and regional organisations. At the same time, these established international organisations (IOs) have faced challenges in addressing conflicts swiftly. States have increasingly relied on more informal arrangements in an increasingly denser global governance landscape. In the peace and security area, more states are using ad hoc coalitions (AHCs) as an alternative to responding to crises collectively and quickly. While much is known about the Global South’s engagement in formal peace and security mechanisms, knowledge about their involvement in the increasingly relevant informal arrangements is still scarce. This article systematically compares the patterns of engagement of the Global North and Global South in AHCs. Theoretically, it builds on the literature on UN peace operations and military interventions to propose a multilevel framework for this comparison. Empirically, it draws on an novel dataset to analyse similarities and differences among the two groups of states when contributing to AHCs in terms of their own attributes, the characteristics of the states and crises to which they contribute, and their relations with these target countries.

Peace and security ad hoc coalitions: engagement of the Global South and the Global North