Soon to be published!
In partnership with Queen's Policy Studies, the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre is pleased to announce the upcoming release of Measuring What Matters in Peace Operations and Crisis Management.
The first comprehensive overview of theories, mechanisms, and stakeholder approaches for measuring the success and progress of interventions within the global community of nations.
The international community has become increasingly interested in measuring the effectiveness of its activities in war-affected environments. This interest is partially motivated by a need to calculate the costs of these very expensive ventures and partially by the recognition that activities have not always been successful. While stakeholders are interested in measuring the effectiveness of their work in places like Afghanistan, they may be reticent to discover that their military, policing, and humanitarian activities are ineffectual or, worse, have had negative effects on recipient populations recovering from armed conflicts.
Sarah Jane Meharg analyses why various mechanisms - results-based management, measures of effectiveness, log frames, essential task matrices - are used in attempts to reduce complex intervention activities to simple success stories. She argues that the stakeholders involved could benefit from a deeper understanding of the theories, concepts, philosophies, and assumptions of other stakeholders in the peace operations and crisis management environment. She suggests ways to achieve this understanding through the strategic exercise of measuring effectiveness in relation to organizational requirements and recipient population’s priorities in post-conflict societies.
Measuring What Matters in Peace Operations and Crisis Management provides policy advice on stakeholder approaches and advances the thinking on measuring progress in general.
Sarah Jane Meharg is senior research associate, Pearson Peacekeeping Centre, and adjunct assistant professor, Department of Politics and Economics, at the Royal Military College of Canada.
To pre-order a paper or hard copy, please visit McGill-Queen’s University Press website.
Other Published Books
Helping Hands, Loaded Arms
In this age of violent conflicts and resulting interventions - made more complex by terrorism, insurgencies, and the militarization of humanitarian aid - the age of a neutral, impartial and independent humanitarian space may have come to pass.
Helping Hands and Loaded Arms: Navigating the Military and Humanitarian Space asks a challenging question: Does humanitarian space exist?
Drawing on diverse perspectives of international law, psychology, cultural geography, security and defense, and development studies, this book provides a foundation to better navigate the space in which military and humanitarian organizations find themselves together. It is intended for all those - scholars, humanitarians, police, military personnel, policy-makers, and students - engaged in analyzing global peace and security issues using a multi-disciplinary approach.
"The publication of Helping Hands and Loaded Arms continues in the best traditions of the Canadian Peacekeeping Press. It is certain to educate, stimulate, provoke and cause military and humanitarian officials to re-examine and, it is to be hoped, enhance their principles and practices."
-- Alex Morrison,
Founding President, Pearson Peacekeeping Centre
"This stimulating book will help specialists, both in security and humanitarian operations, understand better their inter-relationship and when and how their efforts can be most effectively coordinated. It is a "must read" before deployment."
-- Robert Gordon, Major General (retired),
Former Commander of the United Nations Operation in Ethiopia and Eritrea
Order your copy.