The view from the bottom: Networks of conflict resolution organizations and international peace

In: Journal of peace research, Volume 53, Issue 3, p. 442-458

Abstract

Networks of international nongovernmental organizations with missions concerning conflict resolution (CROs) conduct a number of innovative international programs designed to promote peace. Is this network of CROs effective? In this article, we argue that the CRO network can transmit information and promote norms of peace that help in reducing international conflict. Our theoretical argument builds on earlier work concerning international governmental organizations (IGOs) and peace and we examine whether and how the connections among states through CRO ties can lead to reductions in international conflict. We test the key empirical implication of our argument – concerning how the CRO network can foster peace – using new social network measures that focus on the actual network of citizens and elites connected internationally by CROs, rather than focusing on the size or presence of civil society within a state. We find considerable support for our central hypothesis that the network of international CROs is associated with peace. When a state is more embedded within the CRO network, international bellicosity from that state is diminished. This result holds at both the monadic and dyadic (non-directed and directed) levels of analysis. At the dyadic level, the CRO network works even when we account for the IGO network with a similar conflict resolution focus. At the dyadic level, we find that the greater the number of possible CRO informational channels between the states in the dyad, the less bellicosity within the dyad.