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In this article we analyse in what ways patterns of observed peacekeeper activity correspond to, or diverge from, community expectations about when and how force should be used. Based on perception survey data gathered in South Sudan and Somalia with almost 3000 civilians in 2021 we measure how local respondents appraise of military activities in their perceptions of peacekeeping operations. We conclude that ‘combat legitimacy’ is an important local measure of operational and tactical security provision and its protective ability in nonpermissive and volatile mission environments.

This FBA research brief highlights the policy implications based on the findings of a larger study on civil-military relations (CMR) ininternational conflict management.

The importance of top quality mission leadership for mission coherence is evidentin today’s increasingly complex, integrated, and variegated mission environments, where mission leaders continuously weigh short-term military and security advances against long-term political and societal aims (Jenne, 2022, p. 4). Research on civil-military relations in contemporary UN ‘multidimensional’ missions overwhelmingly finds that good civil-military interactions are beneficial to mission coherence and, therefore, effective mission implementation. Strategic mission leaderscan employ certain strategies and practices, integrating best practices and organisational principles and guidelines into what they do. This may produce desired behavioural change, yet it is notoriously hard to forecast how at different mission levels specific forms of intra- and interagency relations produce the intended positive outcomes.

This article examines the interplay of power and norm contestation in the AU–EU strategic partnership, focusing on struggles over human rights protection in the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). While AMISOM marked a milestone for African-led conflict management, reports of civilian casualty  triggered EU concerns over compliance with human rights and international humanitarian law. In response, AU officials promoted an African-led approach to civilian protection, seeking recognition for their human rights competence. To make sense of these dynamics, we employ a Bourdieusian framework and introduce the notion of “normative competence negotiation,” defined as the dynamic recognition of agents’ ability to call and act out appropriate conduct in a field of practice. Drawing on fieldwork (2016–2024) in Baidoa, Mogadishu, Addis Ababa, Brussels, Nairobi, and remotely, we analyse how AU and EU actors negotiated normative competence through the implementation of the Civilian Casualty Tracking, Analysis, and Response Cell (CCTARC). We show how AU’s competence claims challenged the EU and partially reshaped field dynamics, though structural asymmetries persisted. The article contributes to contestation theories by foregrounding power as emerging from contestation, advances Bourdieusian IR by theorizing norms as symbolic capital, and develops a practice-theoretical account of normative competence as relational and field-dependent.

How do international organizations (IOs) and their proponents claim legitimacy, and how do their opponents undermine such legitimacy? This article develops a framework that accounts for the links between legitimation and delegitimation strategies and how they regularly produce ‘legitimation struggles’. Drawing on the case of the African Union between 2015–2020, the study goes beyond existing research in three ways. First, legitimation struggles are not simply related to input and output legitimacy but are deeply related to the social purpose of the organization. Second, legitimation struggles do not only involve IO representatives and member-states but are strengthened by a range of other non-state agents. Third, while discursive strategies are essential, legitimation struggles are reinforced when they are combined with behavioural or institutional legitimation strategies. Future research would do well to go beyond the current Western-centric bias and draw on our findings to investigate legitimation struggles under different conditions around the world.

Academic Literacies elucidates how undergraduate students with diverse skillsets can effectively engage with socially constructed and discipline-specific knowledge(s) through writing. Over the last two decades, language specialists and education researchers have developed a robust, student-focused epistemology. However, it remains unclear how lecturers understand and teach Academic Literacies in their courses. This article shifts the focus by exploring how we – a teaching team in International Relations at a Swedish university – translated the knowledge claims and ideological commitments of Academic Literacies into an applied pedagogy. We employ collaborative, reflective practice to investigate how we progressively integrated Academic Literacies in an introductory, bachelor’s level course from 2010–2019. Specifically, we illustrate how we used formative feedback, peer assessment, and reflective journaling to teach International Relations through academic writing. We conclude with a discussion of the best practices and unresolved challenges of our evolving pedagogical design.

This paper explores community perceptions about traditional authorities’ roles during the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration (DDR) of former combatants. We have selected the case of Somalia, where both government institutions and traditional authorities have partnered with international actors and institutions, as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs), to prevent and counter violent extremism (P/CVE). International actors have related to traditional authorities based on the assumption that these actors wield a kind of social power that facilitates the reintegration of former members of the violent extremist organisation al-Shabaab. Based on mixed methodology research we explain social reintegration in Somalia from the community perspective, and find that P/CVE programmes are expressive of co-optation of traditional authorities. We make the case that ‘risk coping’ helps explain why a majority of civilians prefer the government-led formal reintegration pathway of ex-combatants to the traditional authorities pathway. We conclude by discussing the implications that this has for NGOs/INGOs active in this P/CVE sector.

IN THIS BRIEF, we investigate what forms of protection of civilians (PoC) provided bypeacekeepers that enjoy more support thanothers. We compare peacekeepers’ perceived level of proactive engagement, with the expectations and demands from local populations. We find that civilians who are at risk prefer peacekeepers who show resolve in protecting civilians, and their support is based on assessments of robustness.