The aim of this diploma thesis is to evaluate the role of the United Nations Organization in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It describes the positions of both the State of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in the United Nations. The thesis furthermore assesses reactivity and objectiveness of UN in this conflict. There are no doubts that the conflict has always been in the centre of interest of the United Nations. However, the importance of UN is perceived to be decreasing since the 70's. This paper evaluates whether UN is still contributing to the resolution of the conflict and if yes, in what particular fields. In the first chapter I discuss the main conflict resolution instruments available to UN. The second chapter describes the origins and the course of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict throughout the 20th century leading to the current situation. The last three chapters present an analysis of three levels of UN activities in the conflict - political, security and humanitarian.

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"Ideally, peacekeeping operations demonstrate the concern of the international community in situations of instability or conflict arising between or within states. They are conceived to bring about peace and 'ensure the effective promotion and protection of [human] rights'. As a result, peacekeeping operations as well as peacekeepers are expected to comply with standards of human rights and humanitarian law. With respect to the Economic Community of West African States Cease-Fire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), its intervention in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, and Côte d'Ivoire have been generally welcomed as a response to barbaric and devastating wars in West Africa. However, the observation of ECOMOG missions reveals several instances of violations of human rights and humanitarian law committed by ECOMOG peacekeepers. These violations include attacks against civilians, summary executions, rapes, torture, looting, etc. In other words, the saviours have turned into violators of rights. While these violations have provoked concern and indignation, few measures have been taken to address the problem, hold peacekeepers accountable and prevent abuses in the future. ... This study is divided into five chapters. Chapter one provides, among other, the background of the study, the statement of the research problem and the significance of the study. Chapter two gives an insight into the creation, structure, mechanisms and evolution of ECOMOG as the peacekeeping organ of ECOWAS. Chapter three examines the basis for the applicability of human rights and international humanitarian law to peacekeepers and shows the violations committed by the ECOMOG peacekeepers since 1990. Chapter four analyses the responses to abuses committed by ECOMOG peacekeepers. It discusses the national, regional and universal responses to these abuses. It investigates both prevention and accountability mechanisms existing to address abuses committed by ECOMOG peacekeepers. It also explores some potential accountability and prevention mechanisms. Finally, chapter five makes some concluding remarks and suggests specific recommendations for the improvement of the existing responses." -- Introduction. / Thesis (LLM (Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa)) -- University of Pretoria, 2004. / http://www.chr.up.ac.za/academic_pro/llm1/dissertations.html / Centre for Human Rights / LLM

The aim of this thesis was to investigate whether higher quality troops would perform better in civilian protection within UN-peacekeeping missions. The appropriate method to answer this question was through a Structured Focused Comparison and the most similar system design. The theory suggested that higher quality peacekeepers would be more effective in combating armed groups and directly protecting civilians during civil wars. However, the case comparison did not fully answer the given hypothesis. Instead, it showcased another dilemma that high-quality troops exhibit. These peacekeeping troops seemed reluctant to utilize their high-quality equipment and assets effectively for the mission. Instead, they displayed risk-aversive behaviour and difficulty to cooperate with other troop contributing nations. These findings have important implications for policy making.

United Nations Peacekeeping has proven to be remarkably effective at reducing violence against civilians - without using compellent force. A recent turn towards peace enforcement raises the questions: Does the use of force within a peace enforcement mandate affect the use of violence against civilians by an armed group? If this is the case, by what mechanism does this effect occur? This thesis provides two novel explanations on how the use of force by peacekeepers could affect violence against civilians by the targeted armed group. One predicts decreased- and the other one increased levels of violence. These explanations are tested on the Force Intervention Brigade, which was deployed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2013. A most similar comparison between the three most powerful armed groups in North Kivu at the time is drawn and examined with the method of structured focussed comparison. The most similar comparison does not reveal a clear correlation. Yet, temporal order as well as anecdotal evidence give tentative support for the main argument of the thesis. It suggests that compellent force against an armed group leads to strengthened deterrence and physical separation, which ultimately results in fewer civilian targeting.

This thesis focus on the UN-led peacekeeping mission in Mali (MINUSMA) and how the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) has undertaken this in its resolutions. The importance to study this subject and statebuilding efforts, such as MINUSMA, is due to that a failed statebuilding may result in potential international consequences. This is the case in Mali where terror- and criminal organizations now roam free in large parts of the country where these organizations may plan their operations, including international terror attacks. Therefore, this study will research how the UNSC has positioned itself regarding the potential explanations to the outcomes of statebuilding, the statebuilder´s dilemma, and dividing structures. To conduct the analysis of the resolutions, a qualitative document analysis has been conducted. For understanding the context in Mali and the aftermath of the resolutions, secondary data analysis has been used. The conclusions for this thesis are that the UNSC has taken a middle way in the context of the statebuilder´s dilemma and dividing structures, but that the UNSC also shows a great loyalty towards the Malian state and not vice versa as the dilemma debates. The objective is to shine a light on the UN peacekeeping missions in an attempt to influence how they are carried out since improvement is needed.

In our era, digital technology is one of the fastest-changing areas. It impacts our private life, well-being, economics, politics and warfare. This essay intends to answer how digital transformation affects combats and state and non-state actors and also how these digitalised combats compromise social sustainability. The findings include social media and online platforms, dark web and cyberterrorism, cryptocurrency, remote sensing and surveillance, machine learning and AI, and digitally enabled strategies. The analysis was done by the Centre of Gravity model, social sustainability and securitisation theory. The thesis follows a comparative case study approach about Kenya and Nigeria therefore the essay address al-Shabaab and Boko Haram as the two prominent terrorist groups and the empirical data are related specifically to these countries and these diasporas.

This diploma thesis embraces the development of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) emphasizing the Alliance's capability to adequately adapt and react to the rapidly growing number of security challenges in our globalized world. Using the historical turning points and the experiences gained during the various conflicts the dissertation's focus is on the future of NATO in the "era of unpeace" where it is required to "defend against known unknowns" (Jankowski and Stepniewski (ed.) 2021). The first chapter of the thesis consists of an overview of the four main stages of the Alliance's development. The first phase (1949-1990) is the Cold War period, when the member states' emphasis was to build a strong collective defence strategy but at the same time, they established a liberal democratic system and accepted common values from the institutional point of view. The new members have adopted these governance standards and institutions, proved the effective assertion of the liberal institutionalism doctrine but never gave up military realism. The second stage (1990-2001) was represented by emerging new security challenges due to the fact that the bipolar world order had came to an end and the Alliance reacted to this by spreading the "security umbrella" with crisis management policies and...

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...

Global demand for peacekeeping is growing, especially in Africa. The United Nations has traditionally been at the forefront of developing peacekeeping theory and practice, and remains the primary operational agency for peacekeeping in Africa. But increasing emphasis is being placed on the African Union to assume greater responsibility for peacekeeping on the continent. The AU is still comparatively new and is in the process of developing its peace and security architecture. Over the past decade, the international community has been supporting African peacekeeping, both to build AU capacity and to provide direct operational support. In 2005 the international community agreed a collective ¿responsibility to protect¿ vulnerable civilians threatened by gross violations of their human rights. And civilian protection is increasingly included in the mandates of peacekeeping missions. Within the context of contemporary complex, multidimensional peacekeeping (¿peace support¿), civilian protection is not an exclusive operational objective, but is rather one of a number of mandated tasks aimed at establishing more sustainable 4 security as part of a broader peacebuilding goal. The AU has embraced the responsibility to protect principle, adopting a constitutional commitment to protect the rights of vulnerable civilians, including through peacekeeping interventions if necessary. But how capable is the AU in practice to deliver effective peacekeeping to protect civilians? And how appropriate is international support to help realise this ambition?