Burundi: on the brink of a UN peacekeeping operation?

The world looks away as blood flows in Burundi’ (Graham-Harrison, 10th of April 2016, The Guardian). Since 2015 the safety situation in Burundi is deteriorating, yet the international community doesn’t act upon it, even though scholars and political observers warn that it is important to sustain international attention to Burundi (Lotze and Martins, 2015, p. 268). Moreover, Burundi is ranked in the top 3 of under-reported crises of 2017 (Ratcliffe, 2018). whereas, at the same time the country is also reported to have one of the highest rates of children with stunted growth caused by hunger or undernourishment, namely 55,9 percent (Global Hunger Index 2018, p. 16-17). Thus, while the international press hardly mentioned the country, on the 14th of June 2019, there was a briefing of the Security Council on Burundi in which the Assistant Secretary-General, Mr. Fernandez-Taranco, voices his concern over human rights and the humanitarian situation in the country. With the upcoming...Show moreThe world looks away as blood flows in Burundi’ (Graham-Harrison, 10th of April 2016, The Guardian). Since 2015 the safety situation in Burundi is deteriorating, yet the international community doesn’t act upon it, even though scholars and political observers warn that it is important to sustain international attention to Burundi (Lotze and Martins, 2015, p. 268). Moreover, Burundi is ranked in the top 3 of under-reported crises of 2017 (Ratcliffe, 2018). whereas, at the same time the country is also reported to have one of the highest rates of children with stunted growth caused by hunger or undernourishment, namely 55,9 percent (Global Hunger Index 2018, p. 16-17). Thus, while the international press hardly mentioned the country, on the 14th of June 2019, there was a briefing of the Security Council on Burundi in which the Assistant Secretary-General, Mr. Fernandez-Taranco, voices his concern over human rights and the humanitarian situation in the country. With the upcoming elections in 2020 Mr. Fernandez Taranco is worried about the ‘many reported violations of fundamental civic and political freedoms’ and the increasing food insecurity (Taranco, Briefing Security Council on Burundi, 14th of June 2019). Aren’t these enough reasons to wonder why there’s no UN peacekeeping operation (PKO) deployed in Burundi? Intervention, in the form of a peacekeeping operation can, in some cases, meet a lot of criticism; intervening in another country is a difficult task. Yet, sometimes intervention by a UN peacekeeping mission is the only option to bring enduring peace. But how does the UN Security Council (UN SC) decide in which country they will deploy a PKO? This thesis will focus on two aspects: first, the role of the member states of the Security Council, in which national interest often plays a role in their contribution during the UN SC meetings (Jakobsen, 1996). Second, this thesis will focus on another actor that might influence the decision-making process of the Security Council: the media. This thesis aims to focus on an understanding of the decision-making process of the UN Security Council that goes beyond regular realist interpretation in which the member states are central; this thesis will focus on the construction of the discourse. Therefore this research question is proposed: How does the discourse used in the UN Security Council meeting records and international media contribute to the context in which the UN Security Council decided to start MINUSCA and end ONUB? Can these discourses explain why there’s no Peacekeeping Operation deployed in Burundi recently? This will be investigated by analyzing UN Security Council meeting records and media coverage of these two situations. I will use a post-structuralist approach because its focus on language and discourse can reveal constructed ideas of how respectively the members of the UN Security Council approached the MINUSCA and ONUB debate, and how the media portrayed the situation in CAR and Burundi.Assuming that the discourse used by the members of the Security Council and in the media contributes to the decisions made about PKO’s, results of this research will be interesting for states who believe deploying a PKO in their, or a neighbouring country, is necessary. In that case, it might be beneficial to seek attention from international media, preferably media in countries that are UN SC member. Furthermore, I hope this research will contribute to abolish inequality in cases like Burundi; even if there’s little attention in the UN SC and little media coverage, deploying a PKO could still be justifiable. After elaborating on my methodology, I will discuss the ethnic conflicts in both Burundi and CAR and end with the similarities and differences between those cases. Secondly, I will elaborate on the first and second generation of PKO’s. Thirdly, I will elaborate on media influence on foreign policy, and in particular on PKO’s and the Security Council. Subsequently, this thesis will analyze the UN SC meeting records and media coverage and end with the conclusion in which I present recommendations for future decision-makers on PKO’s and further research.Show less

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Burundi: on the brink of a UN peacekeeping operation?