Being Peacekept? The Implicit Assumptions that Hamper the Protection of Civilians
Protection of Civilians (PoC) has during the last decade evolved to become an important guideline for international actors in post-conflict and conflict affected societies. While much policy literature has been written on how to better implement the PoC framework, less has been written on the conceptual framework of the protection of civilians and how this fits with local contexts, networks and relationships. Drawing on recent research and empirical material from Afghanistan, Somalia, Liberia, Sudan, Uganda and Colombia this policy brief identifies five implicit assumptions underpinning the Protection of Civilians as conceptualized in the Aide Memoire and UN Security Council resolutions. Through these assumptions we analyze how a skewed conceptual platform for protection implementers paradoxically disconnects protection needs.
Frozen Moments: Visualizing the Polity in Times of Overheating
We are living in a new epoch: the Anthropocene, where the world is overheated by human activity, driven too fast and filled too full, uneven and unequal. This collection explores the question of identity in this new world, looking at the consequences of rapidly accelerating change on social and personal identities and providing a concrete set of perspectives on how people conceive their selves and belonging in the twenty-first century. Featuring examinations of the Phiippines, Israel, Australia, the Cape Verde Islands, and Afghanistan, the book studies changes generated by rapid industrialization, forced return of migrants, sudden population growth, and the touristification of local cultures.
Norm Change in International Relations: Linked ecologies in UN peacekeeping operations
In recent decades there have been several constructivist scholars who have looked at how norms change in international relations. However few have taken a closer look at the particular strategies that are employed to further change, or looked at the common factors that have been in play in these processes. This book seeks to further the debates by looking at both agency and structure in tandem. It focuses on the practices of linked ecologies (formal or informal alliances),undertaken by individuals who are the constitutive parts of norm change processes and who have moved between international organizations, academic institutions, think tanks, NGOs and member states. The book sheds new light on how norm change comes about, focusing on the practices of individual actors as well as collective ones. The book draws attention to the role of practices in UN peacekeeping missions and how these may create a bottom–up influence on norm change in UN peacekeeping, and the complex interplay between government and UN officials, applied and academic researchers, and civil society activists forming linked ecologies in processes of norm change. With this contribution, the study further expands the understanding of which actors have agency and what sources of authority they draw on in norm change processes in international organizations. A significant contribution to the study of international organizations and UN peacekeeping, as well as to the broader questions of global norms in IR, this work will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations alike.
Prestigious funding to NUPI
NUPI has been awarded prestigious TOPPFORSK project funding to study how states cope with challenges in the field of power and geo-politics.
The humanitarian–development nexus in Northern Uganda
The instituted order of humanitarianism is both changing and challenged by shifting circumstances in the area in which humanitarian organisations operate. This article addresses the transition between humanitarian action and development aid in Northern Uganda, a transition that was driven by and large by the host government’s ambition to reassert its humanitarian sovereignty in the area, enabled by its discursive recast of the situation from one of crisis to one of recovery and development. This recast happened in spite of the persistent humanitarian sufferings and needs in the post-conflict area. Yet, it drove humanitarian donors and organisations to reorient their work. While some withdrew, others moved into more development oriented aid, showing organisational malleability and that the humanitarian principles are losing their regulatory hold over humanitarian action. In response to the transition, some originations payed heed to the sanctity of the humanitarian principles fearing jeopardising the humanitarian space, while other took a pragmatic stance to continue assist the civilians regardless how the situation was being portrayed. Hence, this article, demonstrating the formation of a humanitarian—development nexus, speaks to the wider debates about the relationship between humanitarian principles and pragmatic approaches and the evolving humanitarian mission creep – all central to general debates about the nature and future of humanitarianism.
What does Russia want?
Professor Roy Allison explains the Russian agenda in Syria in this NUPI interview.
Unpacking EU crisis response
How does the EU respond to crises? This is the key question posed by a group of NUPI researchers who have succeeded in the competition for funding within the world’s largest research programme.
Conflicting theory and practice
Donor mechanisms for control and recipients’ desires for autonomy often collide in the development aid universe, shows a NUPI researcher in a recent book.
Towards More People-Centric Peace Operations: From ‘Extension of State Authority’ to ‘Strengthening Inclusive State-Society Relations
Periods of conflict erode trust between national and local authorities and the people they govern, a trust that needs to be re-established. As peace operations are undertaken by inter-governmental bodies that tend to be inherently state-centric, however, peace operations need to go beyond merely supporting the extension of state-authority and strengthen inclusive state-society relations by supporting and facilitating inclusive processes that can address social cohesion, inequalities and marginalization. In order to support the emergence of resilient societies, these operations must help states and their societies to develop inclusive processes that enable participatory and responsive state institutions that are closely connected to the social institutions in the communities they serve. Furthermore, peace operations are often perceived as being partial to the party in government, while the government of the day often discourages peace operations from engaging with civil society. In the first part of this paper we explain why strengthening inclusive state-society relations is an important issue to address when peace operations are mandated to foster peace processes that can resist relapse. The second half of the paper shifts the attention to how peace operations can enhance and support state-society relations. In addition to monitoring the effect peace operations have on state institutions, operations should monitor how people experience the role and impact of peace operations. This can be assessed in a number of ways, including by involving representative advisory groups from civil society and local communities in assessments, analysis, planning, implementation and evaluation, so as to ensure continuous direct input and feedback from the society on the work of the peace operation.