This research focuses on a positive, and previously largely unknown, implication of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping: better environmental quality. While maintaining international peace and security remains the main goal of peacekeeping operations, we contend that they can also be linked to environmentally friendly outcomes. Mission mandates and UN policies increasingly comprise actions that potentially promote environmental quality. At the same time, positive side effects on the environment materialize due to the cooperation with and activities of other UN bodies. The empirical analyses, also correcting for the likely non-random assignment of peace missions and employing several alternative outcome measures, suggest that UN peace missions are indeed substantively associated with better environmental quality. This research has important implications for our understanding of peacekeeping operations, and it contributes to the literatures on the (unintended) consequences of peacekeeping as well as environmental politics.

中文翻译：

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联合国维和能提高环境质量吗？

这项研究的重点是联合国 (UN) 维和行动带来的积极的、以前鲜为人知的影响：更好的环境质量。虽然维持国际和平与安全仍然是维和行动的主要目标，但我们认为它们也可以与环境友好型成果联系起来。使命任务和联合国政策越来越多地包含可能促进环境质量的行动。同时，由于与其他联合国机构的合作和活动，对环境产生了积极的副作用。实证分析还纠正了和平任务可能的非随机分配，并采用了几种替代结果衡量标准，表明联合国和平任务确实与更好的环境质量密切相关。