Can civilian personnel deployments in UN peacekeeping operations (PKOs) help protect civilians in conflict-affected countries? Existing studies on local peacekeeping effectiveness in protecting civilians are limited by their focus on military personnel deployments. This manuscript shifts the focus to civilian personnel deployments in PKOs. We know that civil war parties coerce civilians into providing support for them or to achieve private political and material aims. While civilians are the victims of these strategies, they are not without agencies and can sometimes protect themselves from attack. Building on these insights, the manuscript proposes three avenues through which civilian personnel may help protect civilians from violence. First, civilian peacekeepers may help deter violent coercion against non-combatants by buttresses UN military operations, e.g., though their close ties to local partners and information gathering. Second, civilian personnel in PKOs may help manage the political conflict underpinning strategies of targeting non-combatants, e.g., through mediation support. Third and finally, civilian personnel may help foster and facilitate non-violent resistance by civilians against armed groups and violent escalation through, e.g., early warning systems, inter-community meetings, reconciliation events, and normative messaging. Using original data on local deployments of civilian personnel in 12 peacekeeping operations in 10 Sub-Saharan African countries (1998-2021), spatial models provide evidence for this argument. Instrumental variable analyses support a causal interpretation of the relationship between civilian personnel deployments and the reduction in civilian killings by identity militias.
