At its core, this research project is a revision of how we conceptualise the role of international organisations. The concept of role is often invoked International Relations when discussing the function of institutions like the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA), but its full meaning in this context has never been problematised, leading to varying perceptions of its meaning and a lack of common understanding in the discourse. In the case of the APSA, this lack of common understanding has led to a wide variance in how the role of the APSA is categorised, and a corresponding discrepancy in assessments of the institution’s success and utility, which has had a knock-on effect on policy recommendations, which also differ wildly from author to author. This thesis devises technical definitions for the various ways in which the word role is utilised in International Relations and related fields, and in so doing, aims to standardise our understanding of the role of institutions, using the APSA as a case study. After developing a new technical definition of role based on Role Theory, the thesis develops a research programme which sets out to investigate the true role of the APSA, based on an examination of how the APSA’s role has been shaped by key limiting and enabling factors, and how this role is shaped and influenced, and directed; all the while highlighting how it differs from the organisation’s stated role, and scholarly perceptions of that role.

The aim of this thesis was to analyze the role of the European Union in maintaining international peace and security. The 1990s proved to be a decade of uncertainty and ambiguity in which both the UN, NATO, the WEU and the EU struggled to re-define themselves in relation to the radically altered security environment of the post-Cold War era. After the collapse of bipolar world, there are favorable conditions for more effective work of the United Nations Security Council as well as for greater role of international organizations to share responsibility for maintaining international peace and security. The lack of military instruments to support the policy aims of the Union contributed to pressure for the development of an EU defence dimension. The experience with crisis in Kosovo has led to significant developments since the late 1990s. The EU has acquired unprecedented military capability, a security strategy to inform its use and since 2003 it has engaged in several deployments of forces under the European Security and Defence Policy. Nowadays, the Lisbon treaty seems to be another milestone in the process of framing the EU as a military actor. The thesis is composed of four chapters, each of them dealing with different aspects of issue relating to international peace and security. Chapter one is...

<p>Regional integration has gained momentum since the 1980s and throughout the world. The new regionalism process prevailing since differs from the old one by its multidimensionality covering economic, political, social, and cultural issues within a regional setting. While the old regionalism focused on market protection using a range of tariff and non tariff barriers, the New Regionalism is reinforced by the globalisation effects and strives for efficiency in production, and market access. Using the New Regionalisms Approach, the aim of this thesis is to appreciate the actual levels of regional integration in Africa and explore plausible ways of deepening the integration process with the view that regional integration can promote socio-economic development, provided a pro-development approach is privileged in the conception and implementation of the regional integration process. Focusing on SADC as a representative regional economic community, a qualitative content analysis is used for data collection while policy analysis is carried out using the Institutional Analysis and Development framework. The results of this study reveal discrepancies between policy formulation and policy implementation when it comes to enhancing the pro-developmental aspects in the unfolding regional integration process. In spite that shortcomings in past experiences triggered dramatic structural reforms ranging from the reorganisation of the Organisation of African Unity into the African Union, the creation of NEPAD, to structural reforms within regional economic communities with the example of the 2001 restructuring of SADC, empirical evidence shows that little change has occurred at the operational level. Moreover, even policy formulation at the collective-action level still lacks concrete strategies and plans for harmonisation and implementation of regional initiatives. Some of the strategies for deepening the regional integration process would include prioritising regional commitments to external ones and improving policy formulation as well as establishing linkages between different regional policies and strategies.</p>

Regional integration has gained momentum since the 1980s and throughout the world. The new regionalism process prevailing since differs from the old one by its multidimensionality covering economic, political, social, and cultural issues within a regional setting. While the old regionalism focused on market protection using a range of tariff and non tariff barriers, the New Regionalism is reinforced by the globalisation effects and strives for efficiency in production, and market access. Using the New Regionalisms Approach, the aim of this thesis is to appreciate the actual levels of regional integration in Africa and explore plausible ways of deepening the integration process with the view that regional integration can promote socio-economic development, provided a pro-development approach is privileged in the conception and implementation of the regional integration process. Focusing on SADC as a representative regional economic community, a qualitative content analysis is used for data collection while policy analysis is carried out using the Institutional Analysis and Development framework. The results of this study reveal discrepancies between policy formulation and policy implementation when it comes to enhancing the pro-developmental aspects in the unfolding regional integration process. In spite that shortcomings in past experiences triggered dramatic structural reforms ranging from the reorganisation of the Organisation of African Unity into the African Union, the creation of NEPAD, to structural reforms within regional economic communities with the example of the 2001 restructuring of SADC, empirical evidence shows that little change has occurred at the operational level. Moreover, even policy formulation at the collective-action level still lacks concrete strategies and plans for harmonisation and implementation of regional initiatives. Some of the strategies for deepening the regional integration process would include prioritising regional commitments to external ones and improving policy formulation as well as establishing linkages between different regional policies and strategies.

This thesis examines the portrayal of men and boys within the women, peace and security agenda, and in particular the United Nations Security Council’s (UNSC) security discourse on this theme. The relationship between the portrayal of victims and perpetrators, and the portrayal of men and boys are analysed and discussed based on the three-dimensional framework for Critical Discourse Analysis by Norman Fairclough. Through the theoretical framework of Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink on norm theory, this thesis furthers the understanding of the evolution of how men and boys are portrayed within the women, peace and security agenda. The results of this thesis are that the portrayal of victims often does not correspond with the portrayal of men and boys, while the portrayal of perpetrators often does correspond to the portrayal of men and boys. The study also shows that the portrayal of men and boys as the perpetrators as well as leaders in society has reached the third stage of the norm cycle by Finnemore and Sikkink; internalisation, and that the portrayal of men and boys as victims as partners to the female leaders in society has reached only reached the first stage of the norm cycle: norm emergence.

"The Organisation of African Unity (OAU), in spite of its commitments to human rights, failed to develop its institutions for conflict resolution and thus address the problem of massive and grave human rights violations that occurred as a result of conflicts. The OAU failed to actively engage the African Commission, which was established to promote and protect human rights, in addressing any of the conflicts in Africa. The OAU also failed to take action on the reports of the African Commission, in which the Commission had highlighted cases of massive and grave violations of human rights occasioned from conflicts. Consequently, most of the conflicts in Africa have not been fully resolved and there are still instances of sporadic outbreaks of violent conflicts with fatal consequences. The African Union (AU) improves upon the commitment of the OAU to human rights and conflict resolution by incorporating human rights norms into its Constitutive Act and the establishment of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union (AUPSC). However, the AU is yet to demonstrate its real commitment to human rights and conflict resolution particularly in taking action on reports of violations of human rights occurring as a result of conflicts. ... This thesis is composed of five chapters. This first chapter provides a general introduction to the thesis and outlines its structure. Chapter two looks at the relationship between human rights and conflict resolution and examines some of the tensions that exist between the two fields in terms of their normative standards, objectives and strategies. The third chapter then looks at the mechanisms for conflict resolution in Africa under the OAU, manely the Commission of Mediation, Conciliation and Arbitration (CMCA) and the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution (MCPMR), their successes and failures and the lessons that can be drawn from their performance and also discusses the role of the African Commission in conflict resolution. Chapter four discusses the AUPSC, its structure, powers, organisaton and performance so far. Chapter five covers the conclusions and recommendations of the study." -- Introduction. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2004. / Prepared under the supervision of Dr. Enid Hill at the Department of Political Science, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, American University in Cairo, Egypt / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/llm1.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

Twenty-three years after the ground-breaking UN Resolution 1325, the goal of worldwide gender equality is still not achieved. This paper investigates how a government's political ideology is related to its Women, Peace and Security (WPS) approach. The research question is addressed by arguing that the political ideology of a government influences the quality of its WPS approaches and implementation attempts differently due to varying inherent institutional norms. The hypothesis and theoretical argument suggest that left-wing governments promote gender-friendly norms and support gender equality approaches, leading to better WPS implementation. To test this hypothesis, an Ordinal Logistic Regression is run for countries worldwide that have developed at least one National Action Plan (NAP) between 2006 and 2021. The empirical findings partially reject the hypothesis' expected direction, showing that leftist governments not only positively impact WPS quality when compared to rightist counterparts. Additionally, the research indicates that institutional norms are not a causal mechanism but another independent effect. The findings further suggest that gender inequality plays a role in WPS implementation, with greater inequality associated with better NAP quality. These contradicting findings call for future research, especially by focusing on finding new ways to measure the WPS implementation efforts.

Responding to the inequal impact of women in conflict and their contribution to peace processes, the Security Council has adopted eleven resolutions within the Women, Peace, and Security agenda, which further defined gender mainstreaming strategy within the field of peace and security. The strategy calls for integrating gender perspectives and considerations in all peacekeeping structures. Framed with the liberal feminist approach, this work aims to analyse how five of the current UN peacekeeping operations reflect gender mainstreaming strategy, both in their mandates and operational practice. Using the content analysis method, the study examines the missions' mandates to evaluate gender mainstreaming references from the establishing resolutions to the current one and is further supplemented by the review of their implementation process. The findings reveal a significant gap within the establishing mandates, as UNISFA and MONUSCO included minimal gender references in their authorizing resolutions while UNMISS covered almost all gender considerations. Such disparities have become less evident within the current mandates. The analysis of the operational practice further suggests a two-track gap between the mission's mandate and the situation in the field, as the evidence gathered shows that...

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / This thesis analyzes the "updated Petersberg tasks" included in the draft treaty establishing a Constitution for the European Union. The original Petersberg tasks called for forces capable of humanitarian and rescue missions, peacekeeping operations and tasks of combat forces in crisis management, including peacemaking. The updated tasks add conflict prevention, joint disarmament, military advice and assistance, post-conflict stabilization, and support to third countries in combating terrorism. The thesis focuses on the requirements of these tasks and the capabilities of the European Union's civilian agencies and military forces to execute them. It explores the meaning of the new missions, their specific capability requirements, and the prospects for the European Union to meet these requirements. It concludes that the European Union is currently capable of undertaking the missions that require mostly civilian tools or medium-level military forces for their conduct. The European Union does not at present have the relevant capabilities for the missions that demand more advanced military forces. / Major, Hellenic Army

Art.39 är grindvakten som inleder kapitel VII i FN-stadgan och tröskeln vid vilken säkerhetsrådet går från att vara ett multilateralt organ till ett globalt verkställande organ. Konceptet ”threat to the peace” är det bredaste, otydligaste och viktigaste begreppet i art.39 FN-stadgan. Genom att framställa de centrala förutsättningarna för tillämpningen av art. 40-42, öppnar art. 39 för de mest kraftfulla insatser som FN kan frambringa. I det fall säkerhetsrådet fastställer förefintligheten av ett hot mot freden ”any threat to the peace”, ”breach of the peace” eller ”act of aggression” är det säkerhetsrådets uppgift att rekommendera eller vidta åtgärder för att upprätthålla eller återställa internationell fred och säkerhet. Art.39 är portalparagrafen som auktoriserar tillämpningen av våld och tvångsmedel enligt kapitel VII i FN-stadgan och således fungerar fastställandet enligt art.39 som en formell förutsättning för utövandet av kapitel VII befogenheter. Följaktligen har art.39 titulerats den enskilt mest betydelsefulla artikeln i FN-stadgan. Betydelsen till trots finns det inte överdrivet mycket material som utreder hur art.39 tolkas och tillämpas. Frågan om vilka situationer som utgör ett hot mot freden lyser med sin frånvaro och är långtifrån glasklar och oproblematisk.