International Studies Quarterly
Buying Hearts and Minds, Securing Blue Helmets: UN Quick Impact Projects and Violence against Peacekeepers
2026-07-10
United Nations peacekeeping operations have come under threat, with peacekeepers facing attacks by armed groups. One way that the UN has sought to generate support for its missions is through Quick Impact Projects (QIPs)—small-scale, low-cost, visible projects, carried out in consultation with local communities. Do QIPs increase, decrease, or have no effect on violence against peacekeepers? We argue that QIPs decrease violence against peacekeepers by building support from the civilian population, increasing civilians’ willingness to provide intelligence to peacekeepers and allowing blue helmets to more effectively avoid or thwart subsequent attacks. We test the relationship between QIPs and violence against peacekeepers using geo-located data from the Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, and South Sudan. We find that as QIPs in a given district increase, armed group violence against peacekeepers subsequently decreases.