Summary: Responsibility for the United Nations peacekeeping operations The purpose of this thesis is to analyze an issue whether the United Nations (UN) or troop contributing countries are responsible for the conduct of military contingents in the UN peacekeeping operations. The thesis focuses solely on UN-led operations and on peacekeeping forces - military troops contributed by member states in whole contingents, rather than as individuals. The reason for focusing on peacekeeping forces is their unique hybrid legal status. While they remain in the service of their states, they become for the period of their assignment international personnel under the authority of the UN. This thesis is composed of four chapters. Chapter one describes the meaning and the legal basis of peacekeeping operations and defines which types of operation are subject of the thesis. Second chapter deals with general rules governing international responsibility of states. Chapter three examines legal personality and responsibility of international organizations, in particular the UN. These two issues are closely related because for an entity to bear international obligations, it must first be established that the entity is a legal person. The fourth and crucial chapter addresses the specific issue of responsibility for a conduct of...

University of Macau / Faculty of Law

In three complementary essays, this dissertation analyzes the causes of violent conflict and the impact of third-party interventions that seek to reduce violence and generate post-conflict political stability. In the first essay, I analyze how regimes in fragile states cultivate strong but loyal armies. Drawing on an original survey conducted with members of the Congolese army operating in North Kivu, the largest operational theater in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the epicenter of one of the most violent conflicts in Africa, I show that regime elites withhold payments in order to distinguish loyalty and evidence that this screening strategy drives high levels of civilian abuse. In the second essay, I assess the impact of ``Eyes on Darfur'', the first-ever satellite intervention implemented by Amnesty International USA amidst a brutal genocide with the objective of reducing violence. Using a high-frequency, sub-national dataset on genocidal violence, I show that this intervention resulted in pernicious and persistent effects: monitored areas experienced increases in violence during the program as well as in subsequent years, as did neighboring areas. In the third essay, and in collaboration with Lauren Young, we assess how peacekeepers cultivate cooperation with local populations in Haiti. Using a novel survey, we find that exposure to security and relief activities are associated with increases in cooperation whereas exposure to peacekeeper abuse undermines cooperative behavior. Together, these essays articulate a set of causes for violence against civilians rooted in the political economy of state institutions, analyze how human rights interventions are mediated by the underlying institutional dynamics in the countries in which they are launched, and examine how keeping the peace stems from altering the cooperative incentives local populations face.

Thesis (M.A. in Security Studies (Defense Decision-Making and Planning)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2004. / Thesis advisor(s): David S. Yost. Includes bibliographical references (p. 57-64). Also available online.

New approaches to third-party conflict resolution stress the significance of the interconnections between the interventions of various external actors. Recent empirical and policy-onented work on civil wars underscores the recurrent policy challenges such external actors face in peace processes. Taken together, the two bodies of work provide a framework for assessing the impact of international conflict resolution efforts. The thesis explores the connections between different third-party conflict resolution efforts that accompanied the Rwandan civil war, from 1990 to 1994, and assesses the individual and collective impact they had on the course of that conflict. Empirical chapters, arranged chronologically, review pre-negotiation efforts, mediation processes, and both diplomatic and peacekeeping efforts to secure the implementation of a peace agreement signed in August 1993. This review considers official and unofficial efforts by both state and non-state actors. Applying the framework to the empirical material, the thesis explores a seeming paradox: that the genocide that engulfed Rwanda in 1994 was preceded by a wide range of international efforts to contain and manage what started off as a small-scale civil war. The thesis dispels the conventional wisdom that nothing was done to prevent the genocide in Rwanda. Rather, it provides empirical and theoretical evidence that the failure of the peace process was not a function of the weakness of any one third-party effort, but of the paucity of the connections between them. In so doing, the thesis generates further insights into the critical role—and current weakness—of co-ordinating elements in peace processes. The thesis then highlights the theoretical implications of the case study. First, it confirms the significance of interconnections between third-party interventions, and adds detail as to the various positive and negative forms those interconnections may take. Second, it highlights the fact that recurrent obstacles to conflict resolution in civil wars may arise not only from the nature of the wars themselves, but also from the nature of third-party intervenors. Thus, it suggests a shift in emphasis both for empirical and theoretical investigation onto intervening actors, and in particular the systems and processes that co-ordinate and organise their efforts—or fail to do so. The central arguments of the thesis serve as a cautionary tale about the limits of third-party conflict resolutrnn, and as an argument for systematic reform of the international system for managing third-party interventions.

By virtue of their presence, observers alter what they are observing. Yet, the international soldiers of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) did much more than observe events. From August 1949 until the establishment of the United Nations Emergency Force in November 1956, the Western military officers assigned to UNTSO were compelled to take seriously the task of supervising the Arab-Israeli armistice, despite the unwillingness of all parties to accept an actual peace settlement. To the extent that a particular peacekeeping mission was successful – i.e., that peace was “kept” – what actually happened on the ground is usually considered far less important than broader politics. However, as efforts to forge a peace settlement failed one after another, UNTSO operations themselves became the most important mechanism for regional stability, particularly by providing a means by which otherwise implacable enemies could communicate with each other, thus helping to moderate the conflict. This communication played out against the backdrop of the dangerous early days of the Cold War, the crumbling of Western empires, and the emergence of the non-aligned movement. Analyses of the activities of the Mixed Armistice Commissions (MACs), the committees created to oversee the separate General Armistice Agreements signed between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, particularly those during the 1954 to 1956 tenure as UNTSO chief of staff of Canadian Major-General E.L.M. Burns, best evaluate both UNTSO effectiveness and Arab-Israeli interaction. / Thesis (Ph.D, History) -- Queen's University, 2009-05-28 14:21:45.625

This thesis seeks to explore the human security threats that AIDS constitute to the West African people. West Africa has been badly hit by the AIDS epidemic and studies conducted have situated the discourse as a public health issue only. This thesis challenges that assertion by exploring the complex issues and linkages of HIV/AIDS, Conflict and Human Security in West Africa. Using peacekeepers, women and children as case studies, this thesis analyzed and identified a model for human security in West Africa with a particular emphasis on the right to health and access to anti-retroviral drugs in view of the astronomical rise in the growth of HIV/AIDS in the West African region.

This thesis seeks to explore the human security threats that AIDS constitute to the West African people. West Africa has been badly hit by the AIDS epidemic and studies conducted have situated the discourse as a public health issue only. This thesis challenges that assertion by exploring the complex issues and linkages of HIV/AIDS, Conflict and Human Security in West Africa. Using peacekeepers, women and children as case studies, this thesis analyzed and identified a model for human security in West Africa with a particular emphasis on the right to health and access to anti-retroviral drugs in view of the astronomical rise in the growth of HIV/AIDS in the West African region.

In a civil war, conflict management practitioners are concerned with bringing the conflict to an end and providing security for civilians. Similarly, human rights advocacy groups are also concerned with minimizing civilian harm. Given the similar intentions of these actors in civil war states, this dissertation explores under what circumstances conflict management practitioners and human rights advocacy groups collaborate. First, I compare to what extent mediation and peacekeeping cases differ with regards to showing signs of interaction; second, I compare how the level of interaction changes depending on whether peacekeeping missions are deployed by the United Nations or regional intergovernmental organizations. I find that human rights groups are more likely to interact with peacekeeping missions, especially when the missions are deployed by the United Nations. Moreover, I analyze to what extent the interaction between human rights groups and peacekeeping operations impacts how human rights groups carry out their advocacy efforts. The findings reveal that the way human rights groups use their advocacy efforts depend on whether the third parties providing peacekeeping operations respond to their requests.

Thesis (Ph.D.) --University of Adelaide, School of History and Politics, Discipline of Politics, 2008. / "October 2007" Bibliography: leaves 313-331. Also available in print form.