Volume 28, Issue 4

We study the acceptability of war under certain conditions across individuals from Russia and Ukraine on the basis of World Values Survey in 2011. The period of analysis is before the beginning of military confrontations between the two countries (which started with the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in 2014). We discuss which socio-economic, political and individual characteristics shape the justification of war under certain conditions. Overall, the acceptance of war is relatively low in both countries. Using logistic regressions, we found that there are characteristics that significantly reduce the justification of war in both countries, such as gender and level of happiness. Support in both countries is also significantly larger among respondents who are interested in politics and are married. Additionally, there are conditions which produce different results between the countries, such as religiosity, country aims, employment, confidence in the government, concern over possible war and political orientation.

UN peacekeepers are often targeted by rebel groups. The violence they experience hinders the functionality of peacekeeping operations, constituting a major problem for the UN. What conditions make these attacks more likely? How does the local support for UN peacekeeping operations affect the violence against peacekeepers? Using an original data set that includes local trust sentiments towards MONUSCO’s peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from October 2014 to December 2020, this study finds that peacekeepers are attacked more often when they lack local support. In the absence of local support, peacekeepers become vulnerable as they can no longer gather intelligence about rebel activities from the locals and the increased distrust for peacekeepers gives propagandist benefits to rebel groups. This study suggests to the UN that it needs to employ strategies in peacekeeping operations that would legitimize the presence of peacekeepers and cultivate more strengthened civil-military relations.

This article examines the economic impact of sanctions on North Korea from 2000 to 2020. More specifically, it analyzes the trend of the main economic indicators—namely, GDP and trade—using statistical data from trading partners and international organizations in an effort to evaluate the overall effectiveness of this policy tool. After providing a brief overview on the evolution of the North Korean nuclear program, the first section frames the different types of sanctions imposed on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea by the leading senders over the years. The second part focuses entirely on the analysis of the economic impact of these measures. The descriptive evidence suggests that the sanctions remarkably impacted the North Korean economy and trade. However, the ability of North Korea to establish an efficient mechanism of sanctions busting, backed particularly by China and Russia, has undermined the effectiveness of these sanctions.