Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / This thesis will examine the emerging role of a sub-regional organization dealing with peacekeeping and peacemaking missions on the post-Cold-War period in West Africa. This examination will focus mainly on ECOWAS and ECOMOG, its military wing, as the most prominent sub-regional organization in conducting peacemaking and peacekeeping missions in Africa. This thesis will focus on the first generation interventions of ECOWAS/ECOMOG in undertaking peacemaking and peacekeeping missions in Liberia (1990 - 1997), Sierra Leone, (1998 - 2000), and Guinea Bissau (1998 - 1999)), and the second generation of interventions in Liberia in 2003 and in CoÌ te d'Ivoire (2003-2004). This examination aimed at assessing ECOWAS' strengths and limitations and comparing to which the second generation interventions have benefited from the lessons of the first. / Commander, Royal Moroccan Navy

[pt] O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar as intervenções humanitárias ocorridas na Somália, em Ruanda e na Libéria a partir do entendimento que cada um desses países se caracteriza como um quase-Estado e que essa condição foi uma das principais responsáveis pelo colapso das instituições estatais em cada um deles. Este trabalho inicia apresentando e discutindo os conceitos de intervenção humanitária, quase-Estado e colapso do Estado e segue numa análise dos antecedentes históricos que levaram cada país ao colapso e às respectivas intervenções internacionais (ONU na Somália; França em Ruanda; e Ecowas na Libéria). Por fim, descreve os equívocos cometidos em cada uma das três intervenções e suas conseqüências para a resolução ou prolongamento dos conflitos. / [en] The aim of this work is to describe the humanitarian interventions in Somalia, Rwanda and Liberia from the understandings of each country as quase- State and this condition as one of the major causes for the collapse of each state`s institutions. This work begins describing and discussing the concepts of humanitarian intervention, quasi- State and State collapse and analyses the historic facts that precedes the collapse of each country and the respective interventions (the UN`s in Somalia; the French`s in Rwanda; and the Ecowas` in Liberia). The final part describes the equivocals done in each one and the consequences for the resolution or the extending of the conflicts.

Nationell infrastruktur för geografiska data (NSDI) har blivit en viktig pusselbit för varje nation när det gäller socio-ekonomisk utveckling och miljöförvaltning. Den nyligen antagna lagen The Lands Rights Act (2018) och inrättandet av Liberia Land Authority (LLA) visar att Liberia står på randen till en seriös utveckling och visar vägen genom att inrätta ett välfungerande system för markförvaltning och en pålitlig markförvaltning. Infrastruktur för geografiska data (SDI) är viktigt för att hantera och möjliggöra utbyte, delning, tillgänglighet och användning av rumsliga data. FN:s expertkommitté för global hantering av geospatial information (UN-GGIM) och Världsbanken har utvecklat Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (IGIF) för att främja hållbar utveckling och tillhandahålla riktlinjer för nationer att följa när de utvecklar en robust NSDI. Syftet med denna studie är att bedöma Liberia´s NSDI från ett data och standardperspektiv för att identifiera landets svagheter och styrkor inom detta område. Den kommer också att belysa de utmaningar och möjligheter som Liberia står inför när landet utvecklar sitt NSDI. Data samlades in genom en litteraturgenomgång och frågeformulär som fylldes i med NSDI-intressenter vid flera statliga organisationer och en internationell organisation i Liberia. Resultaten visade att Liberia´s NSDI för närvarande är underutvecklat. NSDI anses vara svagt ur ett data och standardperspektiv. Dataperspektivet anses dock vara mer gediget. En generell lägesbedömning som täcker alla nio aspekter av ett NSDI var också genomförd, detta i syfte att sätta de två specifika perspektiven i kontext. Bristen på nationella standarder, institutionell samordning och en rättslig ram för hantering av geografiska data är de främsta problemen och utmaningarna. LLA bör ta ledning i utvecklingen av Liberia´s NSDI. I studien föreslås också att Liberia bland annat ska bilda en kommitté för geografiska data för att få alla relevanta intressenter involverade och engagerade i den kommande NSDI-utvecklingen. / National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) has become an important piece of the puzzle for every nation when it comes to socio-economic development and environmental stewardship. The recently passed The Land Rights Act (2018) and the establishment of the Liberia Land Authority (LLA) indicates that Liberia is on the verge of serious development, paving the way by establishing a well-functioning land administration system and trusted land governance. Spatial data infrastructure is important in order to manage and enable the exchange, sharing, accessibility and use of spatial data. United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM) and the World Bank has developed the Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (IGIF) to promote sustainable development and provide guidelines for nations to follow when developing a robust NSDI. The objectives of this paper is to assess Liberia's NSDI from a data and standards perspective to identify its weaknesses and strengths within that area. It will also shed light on the challenges and opportunities that Liberia faces as it develops its NSDI. The data was collected through a literature review and questionnaires were completed by NSDI stakeholders from multiple governmental organizations and one international organization in Liberia. The findings revealed that Liberia's NSDI is currently underdeveloped. The NSDI is considered weak from a data and standards perspective. However, the data perspective is considered as more solid. A general baseline assessment covering all aspects of an NSDI was also carried out to set the two specific perspectives into context. Overall, weak national standards, institutional coordination, and legal framework for handling spatial data are the primary concerns and challenges. LLA is suggested to take the lead in the development of Liberia´s NSDI. The study also suggests that Liberia form a spatial data committee in order to have all relevant stakeholders onboard and committed for the NSDI development at hand.

The essence of this thesis is to explore the role of Nigeria, West Africa's hegemon, in the intervention efforts by the Economic Community of West African states (ECOWAS) through its Cease-fire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) in both Liberia (1990-1997) and Sierra Leone (1993-2000). While the thesis has sought to understand the leading role played by Nigeria in first establishing the ECOWAS and being the primus motor for its functions, I have also attempted to analyse the rationalities for the transformation of ECOWAS from a purely economic integrative scheme to a security organisation. While the economic agendas for ECOWAS have not changed, the argument in this thesis is that security related issues and realities have taken precedence over the original economistic agendas. One of the thesis' major arguments is that the nature of results attained in both Liberia and Sierra Leone are different because of (a) the leadership role of Nigeria and (b) the nature of international responses and contributions to the resolution of these conflicts. In the thesis, I argue that in the Liberian case, Nigeria took a more domineering leadership role albeit tinged with the characteristics of the actions of a benevolent hegemon. Here, Nigeria through different processes either through leadership, consensus-seeking processes and dialogue managed to get other ECOWAS states to coalesce around its leadership. However, in Sierra Leone, Nigeria's leadership role was not permitted to unfold. The resultant effect was the shift from NIFAG to ECOMOG and eventually "rekindling hatred" of these troops as UN troops. This thesis has pointed to the utility of sub-regional organisations in resolving conflicts and demonstrates the need for further study. / Political Science / DLITT ET PHIL (INT POL)

All organizations involved in war are concerned with military cohesion. Yet previous studies have only investigated cohesion in a very narrow manner, focusing almost solely on Western state militaries or on micro-level explanations. This dissertation argues for the need to broaden this perspective. It focuses on three classic sources of cohesion – coercion, compensation and constructs (such as identity and ideology) – and investigates their relevance in the Second Liberian Civil War (1999-2003). More specifically, this dissertation consists of an inquiry of how the conflict's three main military organizations – Charles Taylor’s Government of Liberia (GoL), the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) and Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) – drew on these three sources to foster cohesion. Based on thirteen months of ethnographic fieldwork with former combatants, this dissertation contains five parts: an introduction, which focuses on issues of theory and method, and four essays that investigate the three sources of cohesion in the three organizations. Essay I focuses on the LURD rebels, and provides an insider account of their strategy. It shows that even decentralized movements like the LURD can execute strategy, and contends that the LURD fought its fiercest battles not against the government, but to keep itself together. Essay II focuses on coercion, and counters the prevailing view of African rebels’ extensive use of coercion to keep themselves together. Since extreme coercion in particular remained illegitimate, its use would have decreased, rather than increased, cohesion. Essay III investigates the government militias to whom warfighting was subcontracted. In a context characterized by a weak state and fragmented social organization, compensation may have remained the only available source of cohesion. Essay IV investigates identities as sources of cohesion. It argues that while identities are a powerful cohesive source, they must be both created and maintained to remain relevant. Taken together, this dissertation argues for a more comprehensive approach to the investigation of cohesion, and one that also takes into account mezzo- and macro-level factors.

No description available.

Liberia emerged from 14 years of brutal civil conflict, demobilized and “reintegrated” large numbers of ex-combatants, but there are still concerns about ex-combatants’ re-engagement in violence. Yet, adequate knowledge and empirical evidence about this are still sketchy. Qualitative fieldwork among ex-combatants conducted in five locations in Monrovia from 2012-2013, suggests that ex-combatants are re-marginalized. This research presents excombatants’ current status, their re-marginalization, and factors indicative of their re-engagement in violence in post-conflict Liberia. The study contends that ex-combatants were apparently not satisfied with the outcome of the DDRR programme, as it failed to reintegrate them successfully. The study developed a four dimensional analytical framework that includes, (a) re-marginalization (b) re-criminalization (c) exploitation, and (d) economic insecurity, which are then applied to the outcome of the reintegration of ex-combatants in Liberia. On the basis of the data collected in fieldwork, the analytical framework reveals how these factors and dynamics interacted and facilitated the occurrence of violence. The study argues that an awareness of ex-combatants’ vulnerability and re-marginalization should put state actors in a position to better predict their violent inclinations. It further notes that ex-combatant re-engagement in violence is largely manifested at the political and economic levels and this has the potential to lead to a renewed conflict if not mitigated. This study by no means completes the tasks of research and analysis on violence and excombatants, but it outlines theoretical propositions and conclusions, which can hopefully spark further debate and collective efforts among researchers to push this field of study forward.

Submitted by Elesbão Santiago Neto (neto10uepb@cche.uepb.edu.br) on 2016-09-01T19:31:25Z No. of bitstreams: 1 PDF - Daniel Castanheira do Amaral Gonçalves.pdf: 2102409 bytes, checksum: 9f633fb3db4954105bbd0f091a35df9c (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-01T19:31:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 PDF - Daniel Castanheira do Amaral Gonçalves.pdf: 2102409 bytes, checksum: 9f633fb3db4954105bbd0f091a35df9c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-05-17 / Capes / This study aims to analyze the impacts of the UN’s integration policies over the humanitarian space, based on the High Commissioner of the United Nations for Refugees (UNHCR). It presents the development of such policies, exposing it as a direct result of a process of reform that sought to bring more coherence to the UN system’s action in favor of peace-building, intending to avoid the repetition of failures such as Rwanda and Srebrenica, which occurred during the 1990s peace operations. It analyzes, furthermore, the relation between the UNHCR’s mandate and the humanitarian space, exposing that the concept of the later, as used by the agency and by other humanitarian actors, favors a space destined to humanitarian action promoted by humanitarian actors in a neutral, impartial and absent form and with political influence. Nevertheless, questioning the possibility of completely divorcing the humanitarian action from politics, it is proposed that the humanitarian space be understood as an arena in which several actors negotiate its interests, world perspectives and operational objectives. This concept would allow to conciliate the heterogeneous nature of the humanitarian system and better understand not only the operational reality of humanitarian action, but also the threats to the humanitarian space represented by the integration policy. To explain and analyze these threats, it is used the five areas of humanitarian space - as identified by the United Nations Integration Steering Group - to assess how integration affects the humanitarian space: humanitarian security; humanitarian access; engagement with non-state armed actors; perceptions of humanitarian actors; and humanitarian advocacy. At the end, an analyses is made of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), a mission that since its genesis was structured under the precepts of integration, with the purpose of assess the impacts of integration on the humanitarian space in the Liberian using the five areas aforementioned. It attempts, therefore, to analyze if the UN integrated missions can expand the humanitarian space for UNHCR. It is, therefore, a documentary analysis - from UNHCR authored files - and a field study, in which data was collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with six UNHCR officers who served in Liberia and were interviewed at March 2015. It was used, moreover, scientific articles, books and academic dissertations obtained through electronic and bibliographic sources. It was concluded that in Liberia the integrated mission had a positive impact on the humanitarian space and that it facilitated the humanitarian action. It is proposed, by the end, that the use of the concept of the humanitarian space as an arena and the strategic engagement promoted by the humanitarian actors with political and military actors would allow humanitarian agencies to offer a stronger protection for those who benefit from their actions. Additionally, it would also better protect humanitarian interests in face of perceived threats that integration may represent to the humanitarian space / Sistema ONU em benefício da consolidação da paz, com o intuito de evitar-se a repetição de falhas como as de Ruanda e Srebrenica, ocorridas nas operações de paz dos 1990. Analisa-se, ademais, a relação do mandato do ACNUR com o espaço humanitário, expondo que o conceito deste espaço utilizado pela agência, bem como por outros atores humanitários, privilegia um espaço destinado à ação humanitária prestada por atores humanitários de forma neutra, imparcial e sem influências políticas. No entanto, questionando-se a possibilidade de se divorciar integralmente a ação humanitária da política, propõe-se que o espaço humanitário seja entendido como uma arena, na qual diversos atores negociam interesses, perspectivas de mundo e objetivos operacionais. Este conceito permitiria conciliar a realidade heterogênea do sistema humanitário e compreender melhor não apenas a realidade operacional da ação humanitária, mas também as ameaças ao espaço humanitário representadas pela política de integração. Para a explicação e análise destas ameaças, utilizam-se as cinco áreas do espaço humanitário - conforme identificadas pelo Grupo das Nações Unidas de Direção da Integração - para avaliar como a integração ameaçaria o espaço humanitário: a segurança dos atores humanitários; o acesso humanitário; a interação com atores armados não-estatais; as percepções dos atores humanitários por atores locais; e a advocacia humanitária. Faz-se, ao fim, um estudo da Missão das Nações Unidas na Libéria (UNMIL), operação de paz estruturada desde sua gênese sob os preceitos da integração, com o propósito de analisar o impacto da integração no espaço humanitário dentro do contexto liberiano, utilizando as cinco áreas anteriormente identificadas. Intenta-se, deste modo, analisar se as missões integradas da ONU permitem expandir o espaço humanitário para o ACNUR. Trata-se, portanto, de um estudo de análise documental - em arquivos de autoria do ACNUR - e de um estudo de campo, no qual se colheram dados por meio de entrevistas semi-dirigidas feitas com funcionários do ACNUR que atuaram na Libéria e que foram entrevistados em março de 2015. Utilizaram-se, ainda, artigos científicos, livros e dissertações acadêmicas obtidas por meio de fontes eletrônicas e bibliográficas. Conclui-se que, na Libéria, a missão integrada teve um impacto positivo no espaço humanitário e facilitou a ação humanitária. Propõem-se, ao final, que o uso do conceito de espaço humanitário como arena e o engajamento estratégico por parte dos atores humanitários com atores políticos e militares permitiriam às agências humanitárias oferecer maior proteção aos beneficiários de suas ações, bem como melhor defender os interesses humanitários em face das ameaças percebidas que a integração representaria ao espaço humanitário.

This thesis as a social documentary, using images to provoke awareness of the emotions of children, their lives during the 15-year old Civil War that was in Liberia, West Africa. This thesis will visually explore different timelines, the past, the present and the future of children depicted. In depicting the past, the images capturing specific moment of what a child had to witness during the war. In depicting the present images showcase the aftermath of the war for children who have survived, and finally, for the future, images showcasing how the lives of some of the children have changed because of sacrifices made by people who observed the war and its consequences. Inspiration was gathered from several groups of artists that covered events such as the Great Depression, Vietnam, the Holocaust, etc. These artists include: Henry Mayhew, Jacob Riis, Lewis Hine, Walker Evans, and Gordon Parks among many.

Liberia, Africa's oldest democracy, has made several efforts in becoming a developed economy and ending poverty, but these efforts have been hampered by lack of appropriate financing mechanisms to achieve this goal. The most recent challenge which was the purpose of this study was to understand how Liberia can finance and achieve the sustainable development goals adopted by the United Nations in September 2015. Despite substantial external aid, Liberia was only able to meet 3 out of the 8 Millennium Development Goals, and more than 60% of the population remain extremely poor. The main research question was to understand what policy shifts are need for Liberia to finance its post-2015 development goals. Using Kingdon's multiple streams theory as the lens, a qualitative case study design was used to analyze literature, public reports, government reports, and the loosely-structured interviews of 15 purposefully-selected participants. The interview data were coded and categorized for thematic analysis. Results reveal that Liberia needs to make a policy shift in key areas including domestic resource mobilization, natural resource governance, combating corruption, strengthening the justice system, strengthening capacity for policy processes, and improving political leadership. The positive social change implication of this study includes recommendations for policymakers, the Ministry of Finance, and the donor community to strengthen domestic resource mobilization and undertake pro-poor tax reforms in order to reduce aid dependence, support Liberia's long-term plan to eradicate extreme poverty and become a middle-income country by 2030.