Deparment of Political Science & Public Administration
Library of the Faculties of Political Science and Public Administration, Communication and Mass Media Studies, Turkish and Modern Asian Studies, Sociology

2021-06-06

2021

Sofitis Vasileios

Εμμανουέλα Δούση, Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Πολιτικής Επιστήμης και Δημόσιας Διοίκησης,ΕΚΠΑ.

Κωνσταντίνος Υφαντής, Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Διεθνών, Ευρωπαϊκών και Περιφερειακών Σπουδών, Πάντειο Πανεπιστήμιο.
Ιωάννης Τσίρμπας, Επίκουρος Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Πολιτικής Επιστήμης και Δημόσιας Διοίκησης, ΕΚΠΑ.
Παναγιώτης Τσάκωνας, Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Πολιτικής Επιστήμης και Δημόσιας Διοίκησης, ΕΚΠΑ.
Ειρήνη Χειλά, Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Διεθνών και Ευρωπαϊκών Σπουδών, Πανεπιστήμιο Πειραιά.
Γεώργιος Ευαγγελόπουλος, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής, Τμήμα Διεθνών, Ευρωπαϊκών και Περιφερειακών Σπουδών Πάντειο Πανεπιστήμιο.
Αντωνία Ζερβάκη, Επίκουρη Καθηγήτρια, Τμήμα Πολιτικής Επιστήμης και Δημόσιας Διοίκησης, ΕΚΠΑ.

Εμφύλιες Διαμάχες και Ηνωμένα Έθνη. Μια Ποιοτική και Ποσοτική Ανάλυση της Απόδοσης των Ειρηνευτικών Επιχειρήσεων του ΟΗΕ στις Εμφύλιες Διαμάχες της Αφρικής

Greek

Civil Wars and the United Nations. A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of the UN Peace Operations' Performance in Africa's Civil Wars

This dissertation is the result of a methodical effort to analyze the UN peace operations deployed in Africa, in association with an evaluation of the quality of peace resulted there, as a performance indicator of the aforementioned operations.
In order to achieve this goal, an interdisciplinary approach was applied to investigate how specific characteristics of the civil war per se and the countries experiencing them, has shaped the peace operation profile approach that finally impacts the success of the latter. This endeavor utilized the foundation of civil war theories aided by qualitative and quantitative analytical tools used in political science – namely the Quality Comparative Analysis.
Extensive research and related literature review formulated a list of specific, common and repetitive characteristics of the states experiencing civil war and the peace operations deployed there, that appear to be crucial to the establishment of peace and its subsequent sustainability potential.
The characteristics’ identification mentioned above, provided the necessary basis to formulate the explanatory factors which constitute the prerequisite for the conduction of a thorough investigation of the correlations among them, in order to define the level of success or failure of the peace operations.
In fact, we introduced the concept of “quality of peace” to define the success or failure of peace operations, as the group of characteristics of the resulting peace (after the UN’s peace operation deployment) whose presence is the necessary and sufficient condition for peace establishment, the making of a self-sustainable scheme, while minimizing the potential for future recurrence of the conflict.
At the same time, the absence of those characteristics, raises the risk of conflict outburst repeating and is an indication of superficial, occasional/temporary, unsubstantiated, not lasting peace.
Our research is dealing with the examination of a methodologically selected subgroup of UN’s peace operations, which were deployed in various civil conflicts in the African continent, since 2000, and more specifically with:
- the interdependence between quality of peace and the peace operation performance
- the identification of the characteristics of the countries under study
- the identification of the characteristics of the conflict of the countries under study
- the identification of the characteristics of the peace operations deployed in the countries under study, according to their mandates and their plenitude degree
- the comparison of the prevailing conditions in every country, using the Fragile State Index, before and after the UN peace operation deployment, with the year 2018 as a cut-off point or the year the peace operation’s mandate terminated its mission prior to that date
- the utilization of the Qualitative Comparative Analysis method for the discovery of the favourable or unfavourable combinations among the country’s, conflict’s and peace operation’s characteristics, and the evaluation of the level of impact each type of peace operation selected had to the substantial and definitive resolution of the similarly specified types of conflicts
- the comparison of the quality of peace, as it is evidenced by the combined results of the FSI and the QCA methods, with the views of the elites of the countries under study regarding the quality of the resulting peace and the aptness of the peacekeeping operation

As evidenced by the comparison of the QCA results with the views of the elites of the countries under study, we can safely conclude that good practices actually coexist with a series of significant omissions and institutional weaknesses in the approach to civil conflicts on behalf of the UN.
However, it would be unfair to solely attribute the failures to the United Nations, ignoring the provocative lack of political will on the part of those involved in the conflict, which is identified as a necessary condition or prerequisite for the establishment of sustainable peace. It is that lack of political will, primarily in complex conflicts where there is a large number of sides involved, that cancels nearly every effort of the Organization. In addition, an important finding of the research is the decisive role of the complexity of the conflict; to such a degree that it makes the efforts of peace operations insufficient, no matter how complete their arrangement appears to be.
The research importance and contribution of this dissertation consists primarily in the attempt to bridge the literature gap regarding the evaluation of peace operations, a subject that has been of minimal concern to researchers, while gaining added value with the application of the Qualitative Comparative Analysis for the interpretation and support of the research questions.
Additionally, the subsequent realization of the existence of favourable combinations of conflict – state - peace operation (and respectively of the unfavourable) essentially provides the necessary scientific verification and, under certain conditions, paves the way for more effective peacekeeping operations in the future.

Social, Political and Economic sciences

Civil wars, conflict, United Nations, peace operations, peacekeeping, UN, International Organizations, Africa, Qualitative Comparative Analysis, QCA, performance, Fragile State Index, FSI, fragile states

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https://pergamos.lib.uoa.gr/uoa/dl/object/2946867