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Publications (10 of 35) Show all publications
Ruffa, C. & Rietjens, S. (2023). Meaning making in peacekeeping missions: mandate interpretation and multinational collaboration in the UN mission in Mali. European Journal of International Relations, 29(1), 53-78
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Meaning making in peacekeeping missions: mandate interpretation and multinational collaboration in the UN mission in Mali
2023 (English)In: European Journal of International Relations, ISSN 1354-0661, E-ISSN 1460-3713, Vol. 29, no 1, p. 53-78Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Peacekeeping helps to prevent conflict and to protect civilians. But how does it work to achieve those aims? Notwithstanding a growing recognition that peacekeeping mandates alone do not directly determine what actually happens in the field, we still know little about how-once deployed-military units translate an ambiguous mandate into action. In this paper, we focus on one dimension of peacekeepers’ behavior that has become increasingly important, namely, how peacekeepers relate to other military units with whom they are supposed to implement their mandate. We systematically document how mandate interpretations emerge and how they influence peacekeepers’ understanding of other troops they work with. Central to this is peacekeepers’ meaning making, a concept we borrow from the sociological literature, which refers to the common and human process through which individuals give meaning to their surrounding context. Drawing on nearly 120 interviews with peacekeepers deployed to the United Nations (UN) mission in Mali (2014-2019), we identify three different ways by which peacekeepers interpret their mandate and interact with other contingents: Voltaire’s garden; building bridges; and othering. Acknowledging peacekeepers’ agency and the social dimension of peacekeeping has important implications for both scholarly and policy debates.

Keywords
peacekeeping, meaning making, military organizations, qualitative research, mandate interpretation, cooperation with other contingents, racialized hierarchies
National Category
Political Science (excluding Public Administration Studies and Globalisation Studies)
Research subject
War Studies
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:fhs:diva-11033 (URN)10.1177/13540661221104757 (DOI)000821258400001 ()
Funder
Swedish Research Council, 2017-02139The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities (KVHAA)
Available from: 2022-08-11 Created: 2022-08-11 Last updated: 2023-04-26Bibliographically approved
Harig, C. & Ruffa, C. (2022). Knocking on the barracks’ door: How role conceptions shape the military’s reactions to political demands. European Journal of International Security, 7(1), 84-103
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Knocking on the barracks’ door: How role conceptions shape the military’s reactions to political demands
2022 (English)In: European Journal of International Security, ISSN 2057-5637, E-ISSN 2057-5645, Vol. 7, no 1, p. 84-103Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Academic research on civil-military relations often assumes that dangers for democracy and civilian control mainly emanate from the military’s predisposition of ‘pushing’ its way into politics. Yet, civilian control frequently is a precondition for governments’ moves of ‘pulling’ the military into roles that may potentially be problematic. These can include the military’s involvement in political disputes or internal public security missions. Notwithstanding its empirical relevance, little academic work has been devoted to understanding how ‘pulling’ works. In this article, we aim to provide a first, exploratory framework of ‘pulling’ that captures the dynamics of the military’s reactions and indirect consequences for civil-military relations. We identify three analytically distinct phases in which pulling occurs. First, politicians initiate either operational or political pulling moves. Second, we situate the military’s reaction on a spectrum that ranges from refusal to non-conditional compliance. This reaction is driven by the military’s role conceptions about appropriate missions and their relation to politics. In a third phase, the military may slowly start shifting its role conceptions to adapt to its new roles. We illustrate our argument with case studies of two different instances of pulling: operational pulling in the case of France (2015-19) and operational - then-turned-political - pulling in the case of Brazil (2010-20).

Keywords
Civil-Military Relations, Role Conceptions, Pulling, Brazil, France
National Category
Peace and Conflict Studies Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified
Research subject
Political Science
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:fhs:diva-10818 (URN)10.1017/eis.2021.30 (DOI)000746081400007 ()
Note

Special issue article

Available from: 2022-05-11 Created: 2022-05-11 Last updated: 2025-02-20Bibliographically approved
Harig, C., Jenne, N. & Ruffa, C. (2022). Operational experiences, military role conceptions, and their influence on civil-military relations. European Journal of International Security, 7(1), 1-17
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Operational experiences, military role conceptions, and their influence on civil-military relations
2022 (English)In: European Journal of International Security, ISSN 2057-5637, E-ISSN 2057-5645, Vol. 7, no 1, p. 1-17Article in journal, Editorial material (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

A considerable amount of research within security studies has explored the military’s increasingly diverse and multifaceted tasks. However, this debate has been disconnected from the literature on civil-military relations to the effect that we still lack knowledge about how and why these operational tasks have consequences for the relations between the armed forces, civilian authorities, and society at large. In order to provide for a better understanding of these effects, this introduction to the Special Issue debates the concept of operational experiences to capture how the military’s routine activities affect the equilibria, logics, and mechanisms of civil-military relations. The article then provides an overview of the Special Issue’s six contributions, whose diverse and global perspectives shed light on different aspects of the relationship between military missions and the military’s roles in society and politics. Among other factors, they highlight role conceptions - the military’s shared views on the purpose of the institution - as crucial in shaping the dynamic relation between what the military does and what place it occupies within the state and society. The article concludes by describing potentially fruitful areas of future research.

Keywords
Civil-Military Relations, Military Missions, Operational Experiences, Role Conceptions, Military Professionalism
National Category
Political Science
Research subject
Political Science
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:fhs:diva-10817 (URN)10.1017/eis.2021.29 (DOI)000746081400002 ()
Note

Special issue article

Available from: 2022-05-11 Created: 2022-05-11 Last updated: 2022-07-13Bibliographically approved
Ruffa, C. & Wibben, A. T. .. (2021). Initiation Rituals Within the Military: Time for a Change.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Initiation Rituals Within the Military: Time for a Change
2021 (English)Other (Other (popular science, discussion, etc.))
Series
Political Violence at a Glance
National Category
Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified
Research subject
War Studies
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:fhs:diva-10617 (URN)
Available from: 2022-01-14 Created: 2022-01-14 Last updated: 2022-02-08Bibliographically approved
Sundberg, R. & Ruffa, C. (2021). Measurements for the institutional cohesion dimension of the standard model of military group cohesion. Military Psychology, 33(2), 92-103
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Measurements for the institutional cohesion dimension of the standard model of military group cohesion
2021 (English)In: Military Psychology, ISSN 0899-5605, E-ISSN 1532-7876, Vol. 33, no 2, p. 92-103Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Notwithstanding the prominence of the so-called Standard Model of Military Group Cohesion (SMMGC), important parts of the model are understudied: both conceptually and empirically. In this article we, first, synthesize previous research to conceptualize and measure the overlooked institutional cohesion dimension. Second, we test the validity of the proposed full four-dimensional SMMGC model using a survey of an Italian Alpini battalion, and more rigorous methods than in previous research. Results are supportive of our proposed measurements and the validity of the four-dimensional model. We thus make a methodological and an empirical contribution to further the ongoing debate on military cohesion.

Keywords
cohesion, performance, structural equation models
National Category
Political Science
Research subject
War Studies
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:fhs:diva-9936 (URN)10.1080/08995605.2021.1897491 (DOI)000634587200001 ()
Available from: 2021-05-26 Created: 2021-05-26 Last updated: 2022-01-17Bibliographically approved
Ruffa, C. (2021). Military culture and the challenge of ambidexterity in complex operations. In: Jacqueline Heeren-Bogers, Rene Moelker, Esmeralda Kleinreesink, Jan van der Meulen, Sjo Soeters, and Robert Beeres (Ed.), The Yin-Yang Military: Ambidextrous Perspectives on Change in Military Organizations (pp. 101-109). Cham: Springer
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Military culture and the challenge of ambidexterity in complex operations
2021 (English)In: The Yin-Yang Military: Ambidextrous Perspectives on Change in Military Organizations / [ed] Jacqueline Heeren-Bogers, Rene Moelker, Esmeralda Kleinreesink, Jan van der Meulen, Sjo Soeters, and Robert Beeres, Cham: Springer, 2021, p. 101-109Chapter in book (Other academic)
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Cham: Springer, 2021
Keywords
military cultures, peacekeeping operations, military organizations
National Category
Political Science
Research subject
Krigsvetenskap
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:fhs:diva-9563 (URN)10.1007/978-3-030-52433-3_7 (DOI)978-3-030-52432-6 (ISBN)978-3-030-52433-3 (ISBN)
Available from: 2020-12-14 Created: 2020-12-14 Last updated: 2021-03-31Bibliographically approved
Ruffa, C. (2021). Organizational Routines and Military Behavior in Nonconventional Operations [Review]. International studies review, 23(1), 206-208
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Organizational Routines and Military Behavior in Nonconventional Operations
2021 (English)In: International studies review, ISSN 1521-9488, Vol. 23, no 1, p. 206-208Article, book review (Refereed) Published
National Category
Political Science
Research subject
Krigsvetenskap
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:fhs:diva-9559 (URN)10.1093/isr/viaa053 (DOI)
Note

Review of How Western Soldiers Fight: Organizational Routines in Multinational Missions.

Available from: 2020-12-14 Created: 2020-12-14 Last updated: 2021-04-01Bibliographically approved
Ruffa, C. & Evangelista, M. (2021). Searching for a middle ground?: A spectrum of views of causality in qualitative research. Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica, 51(2, SI), 164-181
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Searching for a middle ground?: A spectrum of views of causality in qualitative research
2021 (English)In: Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica, ISSN 0048-8402, Vol. 51, no 2, SI, p. 164-181Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Qualitative scholars exhibit a wide range of views on and approaches to causality. While some approaches reject causality from the outset, a large strand of qualitative research in political science and international relations does, however, pursue causal explanation. Qualitative scholars nevertheless disagree about what causality means. Our paper reviews what causality means within different strands of qualitative research and how qualitative scholars engage in causal explanations. We focus particular attention on the fertile middle ground between qualitative research that seeks to mimic the statistical model and research that rejects causality entirely. In broad strokes, we understand views of causality as lying on a spectrum and partly overlapping. Along the spectrum, we identify three main clusters: ‘positivist leaning,’ ‘postpositivist leaning,’ and ‘Interpretivist leaning.’ Within each cluster, we identify the main traits and provide illustrative examples. We find merit in each of these three clusters of approaches and in the ongoing dialogue among qualitative scholars of different orientations. Understanding similarities and differences in the way various scholars address causality might encourage some to take steps along the spectrum and expand their repertoires to embrace elements of other approaches. By making these distinctions more explicit, we hope to be able to enhance our understanding of different views of causality and the extent to which they overlap and provide the potential for collaboration.

Keywords
case study, causality, ethics, interpretivism, positivism
National Category
Political Science (excluding Public Administration Studies and Globalisation Studies)
Research subject
Krigsvetenskap
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:fhs:diva-10332 (URN)10.1017/ipo.2021.10 (DOI)
Available from: 2021-09-22 Created: 2021-09-22 Last updated: 2021-11-11Bibliographically approved
Bove, V., Rivera, M. & Ruffa, C. (2020). Beyond coups: terrorism and military involvement in politics. European Journal of International Relations, 26(1), 263-288
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Beyond coups: terrorism and military involvement in politics
2020 (English)In: European Journal of International Relations, ISSN 1354-0661, E-ISSN 1460-3713, Vol. 26, no 1, p. 263-288Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

A wealth of research in comparative politics and international relations examines how the military intervenes in politics via coups. We shift attention to broader forms of military involvement in politics beyond coups and claim that terrorist violence and the threat of terror attacks provide a window of opportunity for military intervention, without taking full control of state institutions. We highlight two mechanisms through which terrorism influences military involvement in politics: (1) government authorities demand military expertise to fight terrorism and strengthen national security and “pull” the armed forces into politics, and (2) state armed actors exploit their informational advantage over civilian authorities to “push” their way into politics and policy-making. A panel data analysis shows that domestic terror attacks and perceived threats from domestic and transnational terrorist organizations increase military involvement in politics. We illustrate the theoretical mechanisms with the cases of France (1995–1998 and 2015–2016) and Algeria (1989–1992).

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Sage Publications, 2020
Keywords
terrorism, military involvement in politics, civil-military relations, quantitative methods
National Category
Political Science (excluding Public Administration Studies and Globalisation Studies)
Research subject
Krigsvetenskap
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:fhs:diva-8910 (URN)10.1177/1354066119866499 (DOI)000483380800001 ()
Available from: 2020-01-13 Created: 2020-01-13 Last updated: 2021-11-29Bibliographically approved
Ruffa, C. (2020). Case study methods: case selection and case analysis. In: Luigi Curini & Robert Franzese (Ed.), The SAGE Handbook of Research Methods in Political Science and International Relations: (pp. 1133-1147). Sage Publications
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Case study methods: case selection and case analysis
2020 (English)In: The SAGE Handbook of Research Methods in Political Science and International Relations / [ed] Luigi Curini & Robert Franzese, Sage Publications, 2020, p. 1133-1147Chapter in book (Other academic)
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Sage Publications, 2020
National Category
Political Science
Research subject
Krigsvetenskap
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:fhs:diva-9562 (URN)978-1-5264-5993-0 (ISBN)
Available from: 2020-12-14 Created: 2020-12-14 Last updated: 2021-02-05Bibliographically approved
Projects
Who keeps the peace and why does it matter? Mission composition and peacekeeping effectiveness [2017-02139_VR]; Uppsala UniversityShould I stay or should I go? The determinants of retention of female personnel in the Swedish Armed Forces [2019-00315_Forte]; Uppsala University
Organisations
Identifiers
ORCID iD: ORCID iD iconorcid.org/0000-0002-3474-4281

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