The thesis is a qualitative case study which examines how International Organizations promote democracy and the Ghanaians views and experiences of the process. The case study is a Minor Field Study conducted in Accra, Ghana during two months through semi-structured interviews and the collection of secondary sources such as literature, UN documents, journal articles and internet sources. The theoretical discussion has its starting point in a theoretical framework of democracy. The aim of the case study is to make visible the Ghanaians perceptions of IOs democracy promotion and the issues that are included in it. This study concludes that IOs need to revise their methods of democracy promotion and determination of democracies through more focus on the time between elections. Furthermore it highlights the importance to separate economic and democratic development and investigate the time between elections in the process.

The United States, Germany, and other Western industrialized countries began seeking multilateral anti-terrorism agreements in the 1970s. In that decade, transnationally operating terroristic actors tapped into the anti-imperialist, anti-colonial global discourse of the 1960s to justify themselves as national liberation fighters. This dissertation is a case study of Western state officials who interacted with one another and with recently independent states in response to the activity of such ostensible insurgents. The dissertation reveals how Western officials worked to define and deploy the terrorism label against these non-state actors. U.S., German, and other Western officials generated international conventions that treated terrorists as ordinary criminals and ignored their political motivations. The resulting multilateral agreements stipulated that terrorism was an illegal and criminal act. These solutions undermined national liberation actors’ claims to protected status as wartime combatants. This dissertation clarifies some of the mechanisms which permitted Western states to shape the norms about who is or is not a terrorist. However, Western efforts to define and regulate terrorism also led to the institutionalization of terrorism as a global security threat without providing long-term solutions. These agreements did not prevent terrorist attacks. In addition, the Western multilateral conventions were deeply controversial. They triggered still unresolved debates amongst states worldwide about the conditions under which non-state actors had rights under international law to commit politically motivated violence. / History

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is a place where states can seek international status by campaigning for its ten elected seats. Beginning from this premise, in this dissertation I ask: how do states seek status through their competitions for seats on the UNSC? Drawing on the concerns of IR theorists as well as historians, this is a process-driven question. I am interested in the process of status-seeking, not simply status itself, and I am concerned with the ways that status-seeking has evolved from 1945 to the present in the lifetime of the UN. I understand status as membership in a club embedded in larger hierarchies and examine both the nature of the hierarchies and the responsibilities associated with that membership. Similarly, I take a relational view of status that is predicated on recognition and social closure. While the UN and the UNSC are embodiments of liberal internationalism, they are also embodiments of global and historical imperialism. This imperialism structures the hierarchy under which status-seeking occurs. Status, as membership, comes with shared expectations of behaviour, responsibility, practices, and resources. I argue that status-seeking thus requires relating to these expected behaviours, responsibilities, and practices. Thus, states conduct their campaigns in terms of articulating how they plan to use their status and contribute to the UNSC's (liberal) mandate. By speaking to these liberal responsibilities and the use of status, states are also articulating their relationships to global imperialism at different points in time through the process of status-seeking. In supporting this argument, I examine Canada's nine campaigns to the UNSC in 1946, 1947, 1957, 1966, 1976, 1988, 1998, 2010, and 2020. Using a combination of historical methods (interviews, archival work, policy document analysis), I use a genealogical lens to trace the process of status-seeking in the 20th and 21st centuries.

In the sixty-three years of the United Nations' existence the international stage has evolved significantly, and the world today is different from that when the original United Nations Charter was drafted. Therefore, it is only natural to expect the organization to evolve, in order to fully embrace the changes in the international community and to be able to address these changes efficiently. However, reform to the United Nations has been slow. This lack of change is due to various factors, particularly the lack of cohesiveness among member states and the inability of these to reach an agreement. Member states are unwilling to provide the organization with the power and respect it needs in order to carry out its mandates, therefore, the United Nations becomes an organization with a big to do list, and no way to carry it out. The United Nations may be outdated; however, it is far from being obsolete since it is an important player in the international community and serves endless imperative missions and mandates. It is up to the international community to decide what direction they want the United Nations to take and what the organization will become in the upcoming years. IN the meantime, this study will discuss the possibilities of reform regarding UN budget, the Secretariat and the Security Council. The United Nations is constantly underfunded which is a great limitation on what the organization can do and how well it can do it. Member states expect the organization to function while being starved of funds. Underfunding can be attributed to various issues, particularly the withholding of payments from members states, lack of alternative resources and the high operating costs of the organization. The United Nations works under the guidance of the United Nations Secretariat, which can be considered the organization's administration. Administrative reform is imperative to create a more efficient Secretariat, particularly the areas of staff qualification and the selection and role of the Secretary General; both areas play an essential role in promoting an efficient Secretariat. The Security Council was formed with special privileges to the five superpowers at the time of the Charter's drafting. However, as the international community evolved and power shifted, these privileges had been maintained. Security Council reform should redistribute power accordingly in order to represent the realities of the world today. This study will address the main areas of criticism within the organization: the Budget, the Secretariat and the Security Council, and match them with reform proposals introduced to the organization to address these specific criticisms. Once these criticisms have been matched to reform proposals this study will analyze the reasons why these reforms have failed to materialize over the years and how this has affected the organization. Furthermore, it will address the reasons for lack of action by member states and the possibilities of these reforms taking place in the near future. The goal of this study will be to further understand the reasons why the United Nations has come short of its expectations and how lack of reform is to blame.

Over the past few decades Brazil has become a huge player in the international trading scene. Historically being a main exporter of sugar and coffee, the nation has recently exploded in the production of soy as well, making it the second largest exporter of soy in the world. This case study will exemplify how the Brazilian soy industry has caused the exploitation of indigenous and local communities, and of the natural environment in the nation. It will explore the historic political and economic development of Brazil as a nation, the development of its soy industry, the aforementioned negative externalities of its soy industry, and both the historic and contemporary significance of state and nonstate actors on those negative externalities. Through the lens of three competing theoretical frameworks - Mercantilism, Liberalism, and Marxism - the significance of state and non-state actors will be analyzed in terms of how they historically have and continue to affect the negative externalities of the Brazilian soy industry. Depending on the theoretical perspective, these international political entities - the independent variables in study - impact the negative externalities of the Brazilian soy industry, or dependent variables in the study, which are the exploitation of the indigenous peoples and local communities of Brazil, and the destruction of its natural environment.

Across four self-contained essays, this dissertation seeks to identify which features make international organizations (IOs) effective peacemakers in modern civil wars. The first essay introduces an original dataset on the institutional design of 21 peace-brokering IOs between 1945 and 2010. The second essay contains a statistical study of 122 IO civil war mediation episodes, examining how variation in institutional design affects outcomes. The third essay presents an in-depth case study, comparing interventions by the Arab League and the United Nations in Syria in 2011 and 2012. The fourth essay is a statistical examination of how IO member state biases influence mediation effectiveness. Overall, this dissertation demonstrates that the performance of peace-brokering IOs cannot be accurately evaluated without taking institutional variation into account. IOs display considerable heterogeneity in de­sign and capabili­ties and this variation has implications for the nature and effectiveness of IO interventions. Quantitative evidence reveals that IOs with strongly centralized instruments for supporting mediation and, in particular, peacekeeping operations are more likely to end civil wars. Qualitative evidence shows that IOs with such capabilities can engage in interventions of greater scope and credibility, enhancing their ability to shape the calculations of civil war disputants. Combined, the studies suggest that although institutional capabilities are necessary for sustained intervention effectiveness, they are conditioned on other organizational attributes. IOs with high preference homogeneity can signal intervention durability, giving them an edge over IOs with divided memberships. IOs that contain member states that have pro­vided direct support to civil war disputants outperform IOs that lack such member states. / <p>This dissertation consists of four self-contained essays dealing with different aspects of conflict management by international organizations.</p><p>Essay 4 previously appeared in 2014 as “Leanings and dealings: Exploring bias and trade leverage in civil war mediation by international organizations” (<em>International Negotiation, 19</em>(2), 315–342).</p>

Les études et les travaux empiriques consacrés à l’impact de la structure du vote dans les organisations internationales dans le cadre de la théorie des choix publics sont très rares. Par conséquent, cette thèse s’attache à étudier de plus près l’impact de la structure du vote sur le fonctionnement et les performances des organisations internationales. L’analyse dans ce travail de recherche se veut, en premier lieu, empirique et en second lieu, positive. Cette dernière nous permettra de comprendre comment les organisations internationales réellement fonctionnent et réagissent (Lafay et Lecaillon, 1993). Nous avons montré que les organisations inter-gouvernementales avec une structure de vote "un pays – une voix" assurent une redistribution, en termes de contributions et de dépenses, des riches vers les pauvres et la classe moyenne, tandis que la redistribution en termes de contributions est moindre dans les organisations inter-gouvernementales à "vote pondéré". Toutefois, la redistribution des prêts dans les organisations à "vote pondéré" s’avère plus répartie parmi les classes de revenu. Ainsi, d’une part, les organisations avec une structure de vote "un pays – une voix" sont plus performantes que les organisations à ‘vote pondéré’ en termes de contributions et conformément au principe "d’équité" fondée sur la "capacité de payer" des pays membres. D’autre part, en termes de prêts et dépenses, les organisations avec une structure de vote "un pays – une voix" et à "vote pondéré" sont aussi performantes les unes que les autres par rapport à la nature de leur structure de vote et de leurs activités ou missions. / Empirical studies and literature on the impact of voting structure in international organizations within public choice theory are very scarce. Therefore, this thesis attempts to examine more closely the impact of the voting structure on the functioning and performance of international organizations. The analysis in this research is, first, empirical, and second, positive. The latter allow us to understand how organizations actually function and react (and Lecaillon Lafay, 1993). We show that the redistribution of contributions and expenditures in “one-nation, one-vote” inter-governmental organizations is from rich to poor and middle classes, while there is less redistribution in terms of contributions in “weighted voting” inter-governmental organizations. However, the redistribution of loans in weighted voting organizations is more spread among income classes. Thus, on the one hand, “one-nation, one-vote” organizations perform better than ‘weighted voting’ organizations in terms of contributions and in accordance with the principle of' “fairness” based on “capacity to pay” of member states. On the other hand, in terms of loans and expenditures, “one-nation, one-vote” organizations and “weighted voting” organizations are both effective relatively to the nature of their voting structure and their missions or activities.

Approved for public release; distribution in unlimited. / Natural as well as man-made disasters have become commonalities of daily life in recent decades for a large portion of the world's population. This growing trend reflects the worldwide proliferation in recent years of Complex Humanitarian Emergencies (CHEs) and peace operations. Humanitarian emergencies and peace operations are a complex mix of related activities that require the combined efforts of the UN, military, International Organizations (IOs) and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Given the nature and similarities of their missions, there is an ongoing need for these organizations to have access to accurate, current, and comprehensive information about field conditions and each other's movements. In several of the CHEs and peacekeeping operations of recent years, a recurring problem has been poor communication due to inadequate equipment, non-compatibility of equipment and a non-standardized communications infrastructure. This thesis explores the impact and possible benefits that wireless technology can provide to help bridge the communication gap that exists among the UN and the NGOs who participate in CHEs and peacekeeping operations. / Lieutenant Commander, Supply Corps, United States Navy / Lieutenant, United States Navy

The main topic of the thesis is the impact of the global financial and economic crisis on the support of developing countries from international organizations. The work includes a classification of developing countries by selected organizations, namely The World Bank Group, the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund. The thesis also includes a description of organizations' main activities and ways of gaining finances. The analysis is extended to non-governmental organizations dealing with a development. For a better assessment of the reason why the crisis could have an influence on the provided assistance, the thesis contains a summary of the crisis impact on developed and developing countries.

O marco inicial da proposta de estudo é o Protocolo de Defesa da Concorrência no Mercosul Protocolo de Fortaleza, de 17/12/1996, que apesar de ter sido ratificado por alguns Estados-Parte do Mercosul, e no Brasil tendo sido ratificado por meio do Decreto nº 3.602, de 18/9/2000, pouquíssimo avanço foi identificado em muitos anos de vigência, seja por divergências políticas, seja por dificuldades de implantação, e ainda, por questões de conjuntura, em função de crises econômicas mundiais. A busca por formas de equilíbrio nas relações econômicas ao redor do globo, e seus impactos regionais na América Latina, é constante nos fóruns e organizações internacionais, inclusive envolvendo a repressão ao abuso do poder econômico e a defesa da concorrência, considerando esta um elemento importante para o desenvolvimento dos países da região. O estudo verificou a importância para análises que envolvem temas concorrenciais, por ser efetivamente a sua base e o ponto de partida, a questão da delimitação do mercado relevante. A pesquisa tratou de verificar a centralidade do tema na análise antitruste e a relevância do debate do direito da concorrência para a integração regional, focando especificamente o Mercosul e sua forma de regulação. A integração regional é um processo importante em face das desigualdades mundiais, e pode contribuir para uma melhor eficiência de negociações multilaterais em escala mundial, tornando, assim, útil e necessário o controle internacional do comércio, de forma a buscar o equilíbrio nas relações econômicas com o auxílio da defesa da concorrência. A relevância do tema é destacada pela transposição de fronteiras pelas atividades empresariais, levando também ao transbordamento dos limites de atuação dos órgãos nacionais competentes. Isto coloca a análise antitruste em interessante perspectiva, pois no âmbito nacional, a legislação e a atuação dos agentes está restrita às fronteiras dos países, mas na esfera de atuação do bloco econômico regional, a aplicação desta base normativa em função da extraterritorialidade pode e é muitas vezes questionada, no caso de ausência de regulação específica e/ou norma que autorize a cooperação internacional, advinda de uma instituição supranacional, não obstante a hipótese de reconhecimento e aplicação das normas editadas pelo Mercosul como sendo de Direito Comunitário. Assim, pretende-se demonstrar a importância do tema da regulação em matéria antitruste, focando a questão da definição do mercado relevante, especialmente em um bloco econômico regional como o Mercosul. / The initial mark of the proposed study here is Protocolo de Defesa da Concorrência no Mercosul Protocolo de Fortaleza (\"Competitor\'s Defense Protocol in Mercosul-Protocol of Fortaleza), as of Dec 17th, 1996, that despite being ratified by some States in Mercosul, and being validated in Brazil through Decret number 3.602 as of Sep 18th, 2000, very small advance has been identified in many years, for political reasons or difficulties in implementation, or also, for combination of factors of global economic crisis reasons. The search for a balance in economic relations around the Globe, and its regional impacts in Latin America, is common in foruns and international organizations, inclusively with repression to economic power abuse and the defense of the competition, considering this, an important element for the development of the region. In our study, we verify the importance for analysis involving competitors, because it is a starting point, the question of the relevant market limits. The search has verified how central this theme is in the anti-trust analysis and relevance of the debate about rights in competition for regional integration, focusing on Mercosul and its form of regulation. The regional integration is an important process in face of the global economic differences, and may contribute to a better efficiency of multilateral negotiation in global scale, becoming useful and necessary the international business control, in order to balance economic relations with competitors support. The relevance of the theme is revealed through frontiers transposition and business activities, leading to trespassing limits of international regulators. This statement puts the antitrust analysis in perspective, since national wide, the legislation and the agents reaction is restricted to the frontiers of the country, but on the sphere of the regional economic group, this legislation outside the territory may be and it is indeed usually, questioned, in case of the lack of specific regulation or norm, authorizing international cooperation from supra national institution, not disconsidering the hypothesis of recognition and application of norms edited by Mercosul as Common Law. This way, we intend to demonstrate the importance of the regulation theme in the anti trust scenario, focusing the question of a relevant market definition, specially in a regional economic group such as Mercosul.