Thesis advisor: Jennifer Erickson / What explains why international and regional organizations in some cases choose to cooperate during peacekeeping operations, while in other cases find themselves competing for resources and control? This thesis seeks to explain variation in coordination, competition, and cooperation between international and regional organizations in the area of peacekeeping. In the post-Cold War era, a number of factors—including the proliferation of increasingly capable organizational actors, expansion of mandated tasks, and increasing complexity of conflict—have led to the development of an international peacekeeping “regime complex.” This complex is characterized by multiple international institutions that exhibit overlapping membership, are actively involved in matters of peace and security, and are connected by normative and operative interaction, both official and ad hoc. In some cases, this complex functions smoothly, while in others, it does not. By examining materialist, dependency, and identity factors at work in the peacekeeping regime complex, this thesis explores institutional interaction and the drivers of both rivalry and collaboration in the context of four cases: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Mali, and Somalia. I hypothesize that organizations will cooperate when they hold complementary understandings of their roles within the peacekeeping regime complex, but will compete when these identities clash and overlap. Understanding these dynamics will not only lead to recommendations for more effective and efficient peacekeeping operations, but also contribute more generally to the growing theoretical field of regime complexity in international relations. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Scholar of the College. / Discipline: International Studies.

This paper discusses non-military options for confronting international terrorism. It investigates the non-military discourse contained in United Nations and United States policy documents. It then compares the principles in the discourse to the reality of the counter-terrorism policies of the last five years. Finally it looks at what alternative options are being presented in the academic and think-tank literature, to current counterterrorism practices.

MA, International Relations, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, 2011 / The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a vast country in the Great Lakes region of Africa torn apart by repeated armed conflicts. As from September 1998, the conflict in the country attracted attention of the international community with the number of deaths estimated at around 3.3 million people. The 1998 armed conflict was the most complex in Africa, due to an intricate cluster of international and external factors, with up to nine states militarily involved inside the Congolese territory. These are grouped into two opposing sides, composed on the one side by the Kinshasa government with its Angolan, Namibian and Zimbabwean allies and on the other side a divided set of rebel groups composed of the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie (RCD) and the Mouvement pour la Libération du Congo (MLC) with their allies from Rwanda and Uganda. The United Nations (UN) Security Council is engaged in supporting international peace and security according to Chapters VI, VII and VIII of the UN Charter. The UN Organisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) is a special mission sanctioned by the UN as an effort to solving the political problems in the DRC in line with the adoption of resolutions 1355 (2001), 1376 (2001), 1417 (2002), 1445 (2002), 1493 (2003), 1565 (2004) and 1625 (2005) by the UN Security Council. It was established that MONUC confronted challenges of peace implementation, especially in the Eastern DRC. The aim of this research is to examine the role of MONUC with regard to the promotion of democracy and human rights in the DRC. Thus, from November 1999, MONUC started to operate in the Congolese peace process for the restoration of democracy, as well as the promotion of human rights in the country. This research report will demonstrate that MONUC contributed with strong political support towards the organisation of the 2006 national democratic elections. Meanwhile, the war was ended throughout the country, but human rights abuses continued to be committed in some Eastern areas up to date.

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University / As the title of this thesis indicates, this work deals with the former Italian Colonies during the period of 1945-50. Economically speaking all three territories are of little value. Their importance lies in the strategic position they occupy. All three, Eritrea, Libya except for the Fezzan, and Italian Somaliland came under British Military Administration on or before 1943. In 1945 the Council of Foreign Ministers took up the problem, but due to disagreement among the Big Four (United Kingdom, United States of America, France and the Soviet Union), and due to the many and sometimes unfounded claims of some other nations, the problem of the Italian Colonies defied solution. Despite the initial failure, the Council of Foreign Ministers did not give up hope, but instead it kept on working on the problem till 1947 when the Big Four powers, in the Treaty of Peace with Italy, made the latter country renounce all rights and claims to its former possessions in Africa and at the same time agreed to hand over the problem to the United Nations General Assembly in case of failure to agree among themselves within one year of the coming into force of the Treaty of Peace with Italy. [TRUNCATED]

Thesis advisor: Hiroshi Nakazato / This paper is an attempt to study the United Nations through the lens of organizational theory, and in particular, the theoretical framework as outlined by Allison and Zelikow in Essence of Decision, in order to understand the implementation patterns of the UN in regards to the Brahimi Report as reported and analyzed by the Henry L. Stimson Center. The findings of this report conclude that the UN is capable of change as demonstrated by its ability to comply with certain Brahimi Report recommendations, but is resistant to change, due to the structure of the organization. This does not mean, however, that it is fundamentally unable to do so. Attempts at reform must be able to circumvent these obstacles through targeted, direct action, for the Brahimi Report recommendations which received the highest implementation ratings were those incremental organizational reforms that targeted specific aspects of peacekeeping operations. Resistance to change within the UN, be it on behalf of individuals, departments, or Member States, is a huge obstacle to change, further compounding the obstacles to reform that the UN faces simply as an organization. Future reforms must thus be framed in a way that specifically grasps the attention of the groups/members involved in the reform, making the issue as pertinent and sensitive to them as it is for the success of UN peace operations in general. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2007. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: International Studies. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Thesis advisor: M. Brinton Lykes / Most recent figures indicate that approximately one in five children in the United States is poor (Children’s Defense Fund, 2010; Moore et al., 2009). Thus, the United States ranks considerably below other Northern Hemisphere nations in indices of both child poverty and child well-being (Rainwater & Smeeding, 2003; UNICEF, 2007). Moreover, while the United States has not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), this treaty has been central in reframing policy and practices towards reducing child poverty in some other Northern Hemisphere nations. Many authors and activists have suggested that US nonratification of this Convention is based on “American exceptionalism.” This paper examines these claims – and counterclaims – and explores, through comparisons with several other Northern Hemisphere nations, how the Convention on the Rights of the Child, if ratified and implemented through US policy and practice, could play a significant part in tackling child poverty in this nation. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: International Studies Honors Program. / Discipline: International Studies.

Thesis advisor: James Cronin / This dissertation argues that British officials attempted to use the legacies of British administrative and imperial structures embedded in twentieth century international institutions to define a new world role for Britain after the Second World War. This role, they determined, would be based in international, administrative, and technical experience and expertise. The concept of an international civil service, loyal to the aims of the international organization they served, was first proposed by British diplomats at the League of Nations and based in the British concept of a politically neutral civil service. After the Second World War, British officials hoped that the legacies of their earlier influence - including administrative structures, ideologies, and a large cadre of officials trained through the British civil service in international administrative and technical affairs - would allow them to remain influential in the administration of the new international organizations despite Britain’s diminished postwar status. They were initially successful in this endeavor, with high rates of representation across the ranks of the United Nations, particularly in social and economic fields. Over time, facing political opposition in the General Assembly over their remaining colonial holdings, British officials hoped that their support for the United Nations – particularly as embodied in their representation in the international civil service – might redeem their international image. However, British interests saw increased competition with those of the United States, Soviet Union, and the global South as the United Nations grew over the course of the 1950s and 1960s. Moreover, principles of equitable geographic representation in the international civil service meant that as membership in the United Nations grew, British representation declined. By the early 1970s, British officials abandoned their earlier hopes of maintaining an outsized role at the United Nations. Examined in this way, the international civil service served as a microcosm for Britain’s own standing in the world as well as one way that British officials actively attempted to manipulate that standing. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History.

Thesis advisor: Hiroshi Nakazato / The Iraq War began on March 30, 2003, prompted by the US-led invasion of Iraq. This major, long-lasting conflict resulted in a drastic increase in the number of internally displaced Iraqis as well as Iraqi refugees. The resulting stream of Iraqi refugees is known as the Iraqi refugee crisis. This thesis first conducts a literature review the field of refugee studies, including a review of major theoretical works. From this review emerge theories and frameworks governing the root causes of refugee crises and the resulting consequences. Within the context of the Iraq War, this thesis then analyzes the policy response of the United States to the Iraqi refugee crisis. This analysis is comprised of various models of factors and variables that influence national and international refugee policy. The conclusion suggests that national security considerations, bureaucratic tension due to a principal-agent relationship between Congress and the president, as well as wider foreign policy and Iraqi-US relations, were the major factors that influenced the US policy response. Eventually, additional moral and ethical considerations provoked a change in policy, making the United States more receptive to Iraqi refugee admissions. In doing so, this thesis presents the US policy response against the backdrop of the United Nations Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, the body governing the international refugee regime. It suggests that compliance with its mandate has become increasingly difficult, as the landscape of refugee flows has evolved over the twentieth century. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: International Studies Honors Program. / Discipline: International Studies.

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / A. STATEMENT OF THE TOPIC UNDER STUDY. The Office of Public Information, part of the Secretariat of the United Nations, is charged with the vital task of assuring that timely, complete and unbiased information concerning the United Nations is disseminated to the entire world. The purpose of this study was to examine the functional capabilities, the policies, the personnel, the financing and the effectiveness of the OPI. Further, an attempt was made to isolate specific problem areas confronting the OPI and to seek to suggest solutions to these problems which might increase the impact of the United Nations information program. B. STUDY METHODS AND PROCEDURES. Although the literature concerning the United Nations itself is vast, materials dealing specifically with the operation of the OPI proved limited. Some textbook materials relating to principles of communications, public relations, mass audiences and so forth proved useful as did the official depository of United Nations documents maintained by the World Peace Foundation, Boston office. Largely, however, the incisive and meaningful data was gleaned from on-the-scene observation of the OPI at work, exhaustive interviews with OPI officials and a study of internal memos on regulations, procedures and policies. C. FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS. The study disproved pre-conceived notions held by the researcher that the OPI would prove hamstrung by international politics, its own bureaucracy and by a personnel system hinging on political rather than professional considerations. The study revealed that the OPI is a completely modernized, energetic and highly professional information system. Content studies of OPI produced informational materials indicated that the materials are uniformly concise, informative non-propagaridistic and undoubtedly effective description of the news events, programs and policies of the United Nations and the specialized agencies. D. IMPLICATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH. Since the present study yielded the fact that the OPI has not, thus far (due in part to budgetary and personal limitations) developed a viable system of gauging or evaluating the effect or impact of their programs, it would appear that a study which could yield a design for worldwide "feedback" operations would be both challenging and of infinite value. / 2031-01-01

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