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Civil-military cooperation (CIMIC) has officially emerged as a coordinated strategy between the United Nations peacekeeping missions and humanitarian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to enable access to people in need of assistance in complex emergencies. However, this integrated approach raises serious concerns regarding the respect of traditional principles of humanitarian action: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence. While some humanitarian NGOs are opposed to any form of collaboration with the military, others believe this cooperation is very important to enable access and provide aid to civilians in needs. Using the case study of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), this article analyses the impact of the CIMIC integrated approach between the United Nations Peacekeeping and Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) and humanitarian NGOs on the afore-mentioned principles of humanitarian action. It argues that most humanitarian NGOs that are operating in the Eastern DRC are opposed to the CIMIC's integrated approach as it pushes them to violate the principles of neutrality, independence, and impartiality. Second, CIMIC increases the danger of humanitarian workers to be targeted by illegal armed groups. Third, despite their integrated approach, both MONUSCO and humanitarian actors have not been able to pacify the Eastern DRC, end the humanitarian needs of the population, or improve their effectiveness. Keywords: Humanitarian intervention, DR Congo, civil-military cooperation, peace-building, complex emergencies, Introduction Civil-military cooperation (CIMIC) in complex emergencies raises a controversial debate between the strict principled and less-principled approach NGOs. Traditional NGOs such as the Red Cross, the Red Crescent, and [...]

This study examines the determinants influencing the likelihood of Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries seeking assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF, as a global institution, aims to promote sustainable growth and prosperity among its member countries by supporting economic strategies that foster financial stability and collaboration in monetary affairs. Utilising panel-probit regression, this study analyses data from thirty-nine SSA countries spanning from 2000 to 2022, focusing on twelve factors: Current Account Balance (CAB), inflation, corruption, General Government Net Lending and Borrowing (GGNLB), General Government Gross Debt (GGGD), Gross Domestic Product Growth (GDPG), United Nations Security Council (UNSC) involvement, regime types (Closed Autocracy, Electoral Democracy, Electoral Autocracy, Liberal Democracy) and China Loan. The results indicate that corruption and GDP growth rate have the most significant influence on the likelihood of SSA countries seeking IMF assistance. Conversely, factors such as CAB, UNSC involvement, LD and inflation show inconsequential effects. Notable, countries like Sudan, Burundi, and Guinea consistently rank high in seeking IMF assistance over various time frames within the observed period. Sudan emerges with a probability of more than 44% in seeking IMF assistance, holding the highest ranking. Study emphasises the importance of understanding SSA region rankings and the variability of variables for policymakers, investors, and international organisations to effectively address economic challenges and provide financial assistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis article analyses the UN Security Council’s Prevention and Countering of Violent Extremism (P/CVE) as a Foucauldian dispositif of liberal government. Centred on early-detection, P/CVE tasks civil society with the prevention of extremism at a social level. In this sense, as the article illustrates, P/CVE displays features of liberal governmentality as it relies on civil society’s liberty and self-regulation mechanisms. Furthermore, as the article shows, P/CVE also works as a liberal mechanism of subjectification as it sketches the ‘(undesirable) extremists’ and the ‘(desirable) moderates’. These subjectivities emerge at the intersection of various global power structures (re)assembled by the same dispositif. Therefore, analysing P/CVE as a Foucauldian dispositif of liberal government allows us to grasp how power circulates in society in heterarchical, subtle ways. Moreover, it also uncovers how liberal government works through the (re)production of hierarchical, racialised, and gendered social structures in its differentiations of the (governed) freedom produced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2019, a year before the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adopted two more resolutions – UNSCRs 2467 and 2493 – under the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) thematic agenda. The WPS agenda is considered revolutionary for bringing women's rights and security into the UNSC; however, it also reflects the precariousness of the alliance between feminist activists and the UNSC. During the drafting of UNSCRs 2467 and 2493, the United States (US), Russia, and China – all permanent members of the UNSC – objected to the inclusion of certain language in the final texts. The US pushed for the deletion of language on sexual and reproductive health from UNSCR 2467, while Russia and China challenged the definition of women human rights defenders in UNSCR 2493. These objections epitomize and contribute to the global pushback on women's rights and security, which foregrounds concerns that the UNSC and feminist activists make for "strange bedfellows." In this article, we consider whether the UNSC has been used as a forum to damage women's rights and security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the future of the United Nations (UN) in a complex and multipolar world. It acknowledges the shortcomings of the UN Security Council and proposes reforms to address them. The rise of China and the US's shift away from multilateralism are discussed, emphasizing the need for a reformed UN to navigate these challenges. The text also highlights Japan's role in global governance and suggests collaboration with other countries to promote international order. The importance of upcoming events, such as the UN Future Summit and the G20 Summit, in shaping UN reform is emphasized. The article concludes by emphasizing the responsibility of democratic countries, including Japan, in supporting and improving the UN. [Extracted from the article]

The United Nations is at a point of legitimacy crisis, particularly from members of the so-called Global South who have long felt underrepresented by the institution. Walking through recent debates around trust and reform of the UN system, this article provides an analysis of the UN's crisis of confidence and what can be done to reduce it. First, the article connects research on trust theories of international relations to the legitimacy and effectives of the UN. Second, it overviews recent debates about representation in the UN system, and provides an analysis of their feasibility built off of desk research and first-person interviews with diplomats and relevant sources. Results found that the UN is attempting to adapt to remain relevant, but the institution is quickly losing the trust of its membership because of its inability to evolve quickly enough. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1990s, Turkiye's Balkan policy was heavily influenced by military and defense concerns, but it shifted towards economic, social, and cultural priorities in the early 2000s. Recently, however, there has been a noticeable resurgence of military and defense activities in the region. Turkiye has expanded and deepened its military presence and defense cooperation, actively participating in international operations and regional mechanisms, often assuming leading roles. Bilateral cooperation with Balkan states has been strengthened by new agreements, enhancing Turkiye's defense industry exports and contributing to the local defense capabilities. Driven by commitments to regional stability, advancements in military technology, and a desire to strengthen its regional influence, Turkiye's renewed focus on military and defense signifies a pivotal shift in its Balkan policy, re-emphasizing these aspects with new dynamics and motivations. Keywords: Turkiyes Balkan Policy, Military and Defense Activities, Defense Cooperation, Regional Stability, Defense Industry Exports, Introduction Since the end of the Cold War, Turkiye has pursued active diplomacy in the Balkans, establishing itself as a leading regional actor. During the 1990s, characterized by the uncertainties [...]

This research shows that the U.S. recognition of Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights is a radical shift in U.S. policy regarding the ownership of lands seized by military force since the Second World War. It is also considered a new and implicit abandonment by Washington of its commitment as a guarantor of the post-war international order. Moreover, this recognition will set a precedent for other countries to militarily seize any lands they claim are vital to their strategic security. Crucially this recognition does not have any legal effect. It is null and void, with no international value or legitimacy, and is a clear violation of the provisions of international law and international treaties, agreements, covenants, and norms. It also threatens international peace and security and incites other countries to seize illegally the lands of their neighbors. Furthermore, it is contrary to all resolutions that have been issued in a legitimate manner, including those issued by the United Nations obligating Israel to return these lands. The Golan is legally recognized internationally as occupied Syrian territory before and after this recognition. Since the right to self-determination is linked to peoples and not to states, Israel cannot confiscate this right under the pretext that 'the Syrian state has engaged in an aggressive war against its people.' Keywords: Golan Heights, Israel Occupation, International Law, United States, United Nations, Introduction Even though Israel formally annexed the Syrian Golan Heights on December 14, 1981, after initially occupying it during the Six-Day War in 1967, this action violated international laws, rules, [...]

International efforts to find a political solution to the conflict in Syria began early on in the war. The Arab League was the first body to attempt to mediate, starting in late 2012, but these efforts faltered due to the refusal of the regime -emboldened by the political support of Russia and China- to make a single concession, despite being on the back foot militarily In 2015, new international efforts were launched to resolve the crisis. The U.S. and Russia reached an agreement over the formulation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2254, which became the basis of UN-led negotiations between the opposition and the regime, including discussions on constitutional reform that began in 2019. However, more than a decade into the conflict, a political solution still appears distant, and is now closely linked to the fate of the foreign forces present in the country. The regime is no longer solely responsible for obstructing a solution. The presence on the ground of its allies, Russia and Iran, adds additional obstacles. It is no longer possible to formulate a peace deal without addressing the security concerns and various interests of foreign forces in Syria. Keywords: Syria, Political Process, UN Security Council Resolution 2254, Russia, Iran, Turkiye, Assad Regime, Refugee Crisis, Introduction Thirteen years have passed since mass protests broke out against the Syrian regime in March 2011. The regime responded with ferocious violence and plunging the country into an armed [...]

This paper introduces new data on the creation of subsidiary bodies (SBs) by members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) between 1972 and 2020. Delegation to SBs is one of the principal means through which the UNSC acts, and these bodies are designed to carry out crucial functions such as peacekeeping, implementing sanctions, and investigating crises. Yet, no research has systematically evaluated their creation, design, and use. Our dataset includes a typology of all proposed and created SBs as well as information about their purpose and design. After introducing the data, we empirically analyze the determinants of SB creation. Multivariate regression demonstrates that SBs are more likely to be created when the preferences of the permanent members are aligned. Moreover, stronger bodies are more likely to be created during periods of high preference alignment, while middle- and lower-strength bodies are less influenced by member alignment. These results provide unique evidence demonstrating how politics affects the choice of when and how the UNSC responds to global problems. Our data and analysis paint a picture of a more proactive UNSC than is commonly portrayed in the literature, and these data will enable scholars to further analyze UNSC action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is the United Nations' most powerful institutional body, charged with the "primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security." The main instrument through which the Council asserts this power is its resolutions, specifically by using resolution text to attribute responsibility. The UNSC uses responsibility language to assign tasks, identify accountability under international law, or reflect the Council's normative interpretation of political principles. Yet we lack a comprehensive empirical description of responsibility attributions in UNSC resolutions. We address this gap by providing an original dataset of the full text of all UNSC resolutions between 1946 and 2020. We use this data to show that the Council has significantly increased responsibility attributions since the end of the Cold War, but only for a very specific subset of terms, targeting predominantly states and individuals. We further demonstrate how the data can inform debates about the timing and status of the "responsibility to protect" as an international norm. The data and findings provide a helpful starting point for many future research endeavors, including the role of member states in the UNSC, quantitative and qualitative research on UNSC decision-making processes, or topic development of the UNSC agenda in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Who has responsibility for addressing the security implications of climate change? States and the United Nations justify their existence on the promise of providing security. Yet, although the national and international security implications of climate change are increasingly acknowledged, incorporation of climate change in national security planning or institutional arrangements is far from universal, while debates in the UN Security Council about its role in addressing climate change have been characterized by contestation. This article examines key debates about the responsibilities these institutions have for providing security in the face of the threats posed by climate change, examining the extent to which these institutions accept responsibility for providing security in these contexts. Drawing on Toni Erskine's notion of institutional moral agency, the article examines a 2017 inquiry into the national security implications of climate change in Australia, and the September 2021 UN Security Council debate on the international security implications of climate change. These two case studies explicitly focus on the question of institutional responsibility – of the Australian Government and the UN Security Council respectively – for addressing the threat of climate change. In both cases these institutions stop short of accepting responsibility for providing security in the face of climate change, with limited policy responses or institutionalization as the result. With the security implications of climate change increasingly apparent, and increasingly recognized by these (and other) actors, the failure to accept responsibility raises potentially significant questions about the legitimacy of these institutions themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses how digital humanities scholarship can make use of recent advances in deep learning to analyse the temporal relations in an online textual archive. We use transfer learning as well as data augmentation techniques to investigate changes in United Nations Security Council resolutions. Instead of pre-defined periods, as it is common, we target the years directly. Such a text regression task is novel in the digital humanities as far as we can see and has the advantage of speaking directly to historical relations. We present not only very good experimental results but also demonstrate how such text regressions can be interpreted directly and with surrogate topic models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Russia’s aggression against Ukraine presents an unprecedented challenge to the United Nations. In particular, Russia, by wielding the veto of one of the five Permanent Members of the UN Security Council under UN Charter Article 23, paragraph 1, presents an anomaly: the organ of the UN intended to promote international peace and security finds itself stymied by an aggressor. UN Charter Article 6 provides for the expulsion of a Member that persistently violates the principles of the Charter, but the procedural requirements for activating Article 6 are onerous and almost certainly impossible to meet. Article 6 expulsion is not the end of the matter, however. On a number of occasions, credentials procedure has been used in the UN to curtail the participation of a State that has been involved in violations of Charter principles. The General Assembly effectively suspended Hungary in 1956 and South Africa in 1974 from participating in that principal UN organ, achieving this effect through the organ’s credentials procedure. The Security Council has a credentials procedure as well. Considering the substantive grounds for curtailing Russia’s participation in the Security Council, and considering the procedural precedent for using credentials procedure in this way, States should entertain action to address Russia’s presence and thus defend the Organization from an aggressor State filling one of the Organization’s most important roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between the customary law of neutrality and the contemporary rules of the jus ad bellum is notoriously unclear, especially when an international armed conflict stems from an act of aggression, but the United Nations (UN) Security Council has not mandated or authorized any measure pursuant to Chapter VII of the UN Charter. The issue has emerged once again during the recent international armed conflict in Ukraine, in which states not participating in the conflict have disregarded, among other things, the customary prohibition to supply weapons to either belligerent by supplying weapons to Ukraine – that is, the state victim of armed aggression – despite the deadlock in the Security Council. These acts of unilateral unneutral support have not been characterized by the supplying states as being pursuant to exceptions to the law of neutrality or by Russia or other states as being violations of it. This raises the question whether the law of neutrality still bears relevance whenever an act of aggression occurs. In the uncertainty as to the legal regime applicable in this case, the Ukrainian conflict offers an important instance of state practice that might help shed light on the applicability of the customary prohibition to supply weapons, as well as of the law of neutrality in general, when the international conflict is initiated by an act of aggression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) is an increasingly consequential crime to perpetrate – at least if we limit our view to reactions within multilateral institutions such as the United Nations (UN) Security Council. Turning to the state-led forum for human rights: the UN Universal Periodic Review (UPR), this study instead uncovers sparse and highly selective condemnation of CRSV. By extracting data on all bilateral shaming relating to sexual violence in the UPR since its inception in 2008, this article demonstrates that only 5% of all governments take the opportunity to condemn major sexual aggressors. The findings should adjust our expectations on the progress rate within the policy field of CRSV and advance our understanding of the challenges tainting international negotiations on the topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What shifts in the extent and patterns of China's blaming are observable at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)? This article employs automated content analysis to measure the frequency of blaming by China and other permanent UNSC member states based on a dataset of all speeches (19,623 overall) in the UNSC from January 1995 to May 2022. Furthermore, it uses qualitative text analysis and network analysis to examine the targets of blaming in three different case studies of UN security governance—UN peacekeeping in former Yugoslavia (1998–2008), the UN sanctions regime against North Korea (2007–2017) and the broader peace and security discourse at the UNSC (2008–2018). The study conceptualizes Chinese blaming as a previously unexamined discursive strategy of compulsory power with potential long‐term effects on shifts in productive power. However, the results indicate the absence of blaming‐related shifts in the discursive space of the UNSC: China's rhetoric in the UNSC, compared with other UNSC members, has remained restrained over time. Variance in blaming behaviour between actors and across bilateral and multilateral settings seems to depend on strategic considerations that assess how to exert power most effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the way that China and the main Western states on the United Nations Security Council have pursued "mutual accommodation" as China's geopolitical weight has grown in recent years. China still only rarely uses its veto and typically avoids taking responsibility for drafting Council products. Western powers are nonetheless careful to acknowledge and accommodate China's interests wherever possible, through tactics like watering down proposed Council products and avoiding confrontational meetings. China reciprocates by not blocking Western actions outright, but can take advantage of Western caution to gain leverage in the Council. In light of their toxic relationship with Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom and France see avoiding a strategic breakdown in their relations with China as in their strategic interests. Overall, the article highlights how the structural power inherent in the mutual constitution of the capacities and identities of the permanent members of the Security Council influences the social relations of the members and helps them to reach a compromise over many challenging issues The article illustrates this argument with detailed examples from Council diplomacy over Myanmar and Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research focuses on the legality of international sanctions. It examines international sanctions as a deterrent punitive mechanism within the framework of Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter. These sanctions are applied in cases of breaches or threats to international peace and security. The central question of this thesis is: What is the legal basis for international sanctions? The study aims to shed light on the legality of international sanctions under the principles of public international law. It delves into the activation of international sanctions, the consequences of their legality, the forms of international sanctions, the characteristics of international penalties, and the objectives of their application. The study concludes with several key findings, including: Determining the extent to which the application of these sanctions is legal against States that violate the international order, as stipulated in Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter. The necessity for an independent judiciary to oversee the legality of Security Council resolutions and consider appeals from States affected by these resolutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the circumstances under which the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adjust peace operations mandates to safeguard civilians during mass atrocities. Peacekeepers are usually deployed where civilians face threats from rebels and/or government forces. The literature shows that, with adequate numbers, peacekeepers effectively protect human lives. Additionally, the norms of Protection of Civilians (PoC) and the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) create expectations that missions will be adjusted to protect individuals at grave risk. The paper evaluates cases where PKO were active during the occurrence of targeted mass killings (TMK), covering the years from 2006 to 2017. Using a qualitative mixed-methods approach, this study relies on the TMK dataset from the Australian National University and the Peacekeeping Mandates (PEMA) database to compare the timelines of PKO and spot whether mandates were changed after mass atrocities with new tasks to protect civilians. The paper also briefly assesses the case of South Sudan to evaluate the congruence between mass atrocity triggers and mandate adjustments. Our analysis aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the factors influencing the UNSC's decision-making process in adjusting peace operation mandates to protect civilians during mass atrocities and its limitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses violations of international law and territorial integrity in the case of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Topics discussed include Russia's annexation of Crimea and allegations of genocide, the prosecution of Russia under the International Court of Justice (ICC), the International Criminal Court and an ad hoc international tribunal, and the power of the United Nations Security Council and the enforcement of the abstention obligation.

The current international context, characterised by a crisis in the multilateral institutions including the United Nations Security Council (SC), invites one to explore an often-overlooked question: whether the UN Charter and international law impose positive duties on the SC. To answer this question, this article offers a theoretical approach to an issue that has not received much attention from the authors. This exploratory study discusses the existence of duties of the SC; it analyses those duties under the Charter and international law, especially in Article 39, in the UN Purposes and Principles, and in the jus cogens norms. The article deals with the content and scope of the duties, arguing for a due diligence nature of them, and it also addresses the issue of the consequences of breaches, especially the institutional consequences within the UN system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The United Nations (UN) Security Council has expanded its understanding of threats to the peace with varying support from states. Some members of the Council have simultaneously sought to temper this development, both by providing caveats in the text of resolutions and by making statements when adopting the resolutions. This article examines how the Security Council and its members have justified their positions and actions in situations that may constitute threats to the peace. Existing scholarship has covered conceptual matters relating to Chapters VI and VII of the UN Charter, often illustrated with selected incidents. The contribution of this study is a systematic empirical analysis of how references to threats to the peace have evolved at and within the UN Security Council 1989–2019. The study combines broad quantitative analysis with qualitative case studies illustrating both the expansion of the Council's perception of threats and the attempts by some states to temper this expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In April 1994 the world watched in horror as Rwanda's Hutu began slaughtering their Tutsi compatriots. In roughly one hundred days between 500,000 and a million people lost their lives, including 75 per cent of the Tutsi. New Zealand had a key role, right at the centre of the global response to this genocide, for it held the presidency of the United Nations Security Council when it began. New Zealand is recognised as exercising strong international leadership during this period. But the international community failed to respond in time to halt the genocide, especially because the council's permanent members were unsupportive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When sanctions involve traded goods, it is relatively easy to understand how they function. Either certain goods are permitted to cross a national border or they are not. In contrast, [...]

Using the Indonesian annexation of East Timor in 1975 and Vietnam's occupation of Cambodia between 1978 and 1989 as case studies, this article examines how ASEAN understood the principles of nonintervention and non-interference as juxtaposed against the right to self-determination in the 1970s. As ASEAN's first 'crises' in its formative years, they illustrate how the bloc's initial norm-making processes evolved as individual member states attempted to make their case for or against intervention. The article contends that ASEAN's principles of non-intervention and non-interference are non-static and adaptive. It also suggests that while ASEAN's normative framework may have been sufficiently accommodative of its members' different standards and approaches towards protecting sovereignty, the right to self-determination and independence in the past, it is questionable whether the adherence to non-interference would be sufficient for the grouping to address the present crisis in Myanmar and future challenges. Keywords: ASEAN, Cold War, principle of non-interference, annexation of East Timor, Vietnam-Cambodia conflict., In April 1955, the leaders of 29 recently decolonized Asian and African countries met for a historic gathering in Bandung, Indonesia, to reaffirm their rights to sovereignty, self-determination, territorial integrity [...]