Status Concerns and Sensitivity to Casualties Among Contributing Countries in International Peacekeeping

This research project examines how cues from international organizations and public status concerns influence the tolerance for casualties among a country’s deployed peacekeeping troops. We plan to conduct and analyze four survey experiments using nationally representative samples from South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria. The theoretically driven results are anticipated to uncover the extent to which the public’s consideration for the national status of their country and regional leadership status plays a role in shaping support for peacekeeping missions by diminishing sensitivity to casualties among their deployed peacekeeping troops. While the literature identifies troop casualties as a significant factor undermining public support for peacekeeping deployments—often prompting leaders in troop-contributing countries to withdraw their troops—our argument posits that considerations of national status and regional leadership aspirations of their publics potentially moderate this effect. In the following sections, we outline our argument, cases and sampling procedures, factorial between-subjects experimental design, and the analysis plan.