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...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
The inconsistent application of the United Nations (UN) Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine has facilitated a discussion on the legitimacy of the principle. While the legal and ethical issues...Show moreThe inconsistent application of the United Nations (UN) Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine has facilitated a discussion on the legitimacy of the principle. While the legal and ethical issues concerning R2P have been examined in detail, scholars have mostly neglected its practical dimension. In order to interpret the inconsistent implementation of R2P, the cases of Syria and the Central African Republic (CAR) serve as a comparative framework. Thereby, this paper argues that the geopolitical interests of the Security Council’s permanent member states had a major impact on the adoption of R2P’s non-coercive and coercive instruments. From these case studies and the UNSC’s in/-action three implications for R2P are inferred: that the conditions for the successful implementation of the principle are dependent on the P5, that its application does not in fact delegitimise the doctrine and that a reformist approach can improve the inconsistencies in international response.Show less
This thesis is in accordance with the requirements for the completion of the International Relations Master Program. First, the aim of this thesis was to test the existing theory that a failed or...Show moreThis thesis is in accordance with the requirements for the completion of the International Relations Master Program. First, the aim of this thesis was to test the existing theory that a failed or collapsed regime is a necessary component for the presence of a change in witchcraft victimology from elderly women to urban children. This was done by analyzing the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Angola, and Ghana. The second chapter illustrates the state of the art of literature regarding the theories underlying this research, alternative explanations for a shift in victimology, and type of regimes present in African states. The third chapter explains the between-case multi-criterial analysis conducted to ascertain each case’s regime type and the presence (or lack thereof) of a shift in witchcraft victimology. The fourth chapter relays the results of the analysis where it was determined that out of the four cases, two were in accordance with the existing theory, and two refuted it. The fifth and final chapter concludes this thesis by critically examining the results and methodology and a conclusory statement claiming that a collapsed and failed regime is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for the shift in victimology of witchcraft accusations from elderly women to urban children.Show less
