Ad Hoc Coalitions in crises response: Examining the Impact of AHCs on Conflicts

Ad hoc coalitions (AHCs) are often formed in response to specific crises. They can address natural disasters, financial crisis, pandemics emergencies, humanitarian calamities and other challenges. Recently, AHCs have become a prevalent feature in the field of international peace and security as an alternative global governance arrangement, including conflict intervention. In a changing world politics, formal international organizations, such as the United Nations, are facing challenges in effectively addressing conflicts due to their bureaucratic rigidity. This results in non-UN entities being increasingly deployed in response to violent conflicts. AHCs provide an alternative solution by allowing for rapid deployment and for the inclusion of multiple countries and different actors in the conflict response and peace missions. While the literature on the effectiveness of UN peacekeeping troops – in both post-conflict and active conflicts – is burgeoning, we still know relatively little about what types of conflicts they are deployed to, and, more importantly how the conflicts evolve after deployment of the AHCs. By connecting a new dataset on ad hoc coalitions (ADHOCISM) with conflict data from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), we examine the effect of AHCs on the armed intrastate conflicts they are addressing. By better understanding the role of AHCs in peace and security, we can work towards more effective and rapid solutions to global crises, including armed conflict.