Constructing international peace and security for United Nations stabilization missions 2010-2019

Russi, Jennifer (2020) Constructing international peace and security for United Nations stabilization missions 2010-2019. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Peacekeeping operations are used by the United Nations (UN) Security Council to maintain international peace and security and have often been mandated to fulfill this goal by promoting liberal democracy and human rights in post-conflict transitions. Yet, during the last decade, the Security Council has preferred to authorize ‘stabilization missions’ to support or reestablish state authority during active conflicts. Considering the significant differences between the operational contexts and mandates of stabilization missions during the 2010s and peacekeeping operations in the 1990s and 2000s, questions arise about whether UN stabilization missions produce the same form of international peace and security as earlier peacekeeping missions. This thesis asks, to what extent has a liberal construct of international peace and security been maintained in the UN discourses producing stabilization missions? To answer this question, this thesis utilizes post-structuralist discourse theory to analyze the evolution of ‘liberal’ meanings for international peace and security in UN stabilization discourses and the social conditions in which those meanings have been destabilized and contested over time. It draws on UN documents and interviews with Security Council members and mission officials to explore the construction of stabilization mission discourses for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mali, and the Central African Republic (CAR) between 2010 and 2019. In doing so, it finds that a liberal meaning for international peace and security was unstable and subservient to alternative meanings where national ownership, in which host states determined threats and appropriate responses, was the socially binding principle producing international security through stabilization mission discourses.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: liberal peace, United Nations peace operations, United Nations Security Council, sovereignty, discourse analysis, post-structuralism.
• Subjects: J Political Science > JA Political science (General)
• Colleges/Schools: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Politics
• Supervisor's Name: Solomon, Dr. Ty and Dingli, Dr. Sophia
• Date of Award: 2020
• Embargo Date: 25 November 2023
• Depositing User: Dr. Jennifer Russi
• Unique ID: glathesis:2020-81796
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 30 Nov 2020 17:03
• Last Modified: 08 Apr 2022 17:03
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.81796
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/81796