Bachelor Thesis in Peace and Development Studies
Peace in Liberia? A status quo evaluation of United Nations peacekeeping five years later.
Author: Julia Törnberg Supervisor: Manuela Nilsson
Examiner: Susanne Alldén Term: Spring Term 2021 Subject: Peace and Development Studies
Level: Undergraduate
Course code: 2FU33E
Abstract
Discussions about the utility of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping has been ongoing since its emergence in the late 1940s, and scholars have studied different peacekeeping missions from various perspectives. However, there is a gap in the research when it comes to evaluating the state of peace in countries that has experienced successful UN peacekeeping missions a few years after the mission is finished. The UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia (UNMIL) was deemed a success when it was finished. For that reason, this study investigates the state of peace in Liberia five years after the UN peacekeeping mission handed over all security related responsibilities to the Liberian government in 2016. The state of peace in Liberia today will be analyzed using Johan Galtung’s definition of peace and violence. This study has been conducted as a qualitative desk and case study, and has followed abductive reasoning. The data used in this study have been analyzed through text analysis. Findings shows that the UN indeed succeeded in reaching their goals for the mission. But, when applying Galtung’s definition of peace and violence it is clear that the goals set by the UN can be categorized as negative peace, which means absence of direct violence. Positive peace however, which means the absence of direct, structural and cultural violence, has not yet been achieved since there is still high levels of corruption and discrimination in the country. The conclusion includes a discussion about whether or not the UN can and/or shall aim for positive peace, or if negative peace is a realistic goal and then hand the process of achieving higher levels of positive peace to the host country, in this case Liberia.
Key words
United Nations, Peacekeeping, Peace, Liberia, UNMIL, Positive Peace, Negative Peace.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Manuela Nilsson for being such a motivating, helpful and supporting mentor through the process of conducting this study. I would also like to thank my family and friends for always supporting and encouraging me in everything I do.
Table of contents 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Introduction, Research Problem and Relevance 1 1.2 Objective and Research Questions 3 1.3 Disposition 3 2 Literature Review 5 2.1 The Debate About United Nations Peacekeeping 5 2.2 United Nations Peacekeeping in Liberia 8 3 Theoretical Framework 12 3.1 United Nations Definition of Peace and Peacekeeping 12 3.2 Different Conceptualizations of Peace 14 3.2.1 Johan Galtungs Definition of Peace and Violence 14 3.2.2 Everyday Peace 16 3.2.3 Relational Peace 17 3.3 The Definition of Peace Used by This Study 19 4 Methodology 21 4.1 Qualitative Desk Study 21 4.2 Abductive Reasoning 22 4.3 Case Study 22 4.4 Text Analysis 23 4.5 Sources and Validity 23 4.6 Limitations and Delimitations 24 4.7 Ethical Considerations 25 5 Findings 26 5.1 Background Liberia 26 5.1.1 Conflict Background 26 5.1.2 Cease-fire Agreement 27 5.1.3 The Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement (2003) 29 5.2 The United Nations Mission in Liberia: A Successful Mission 30 5.2.1 The UN Mission Objectives 30 5.2.2 Mission Successes 31 5.2.3 Outstanding Tasks for Liberia 33 5.3 Secondary Literature on the United Nations Mission in Liberia 34 5.4 Measuring Liberia’s Peace Today 34 5.4.1 Global Peace Index Measurement 34 5.4.2 Human Development Index 36 5.4.3 Freedom House 37 5.4.4 Transparency International 40 5.4.5 Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International 42 6 Analysis 45 6.1 Following Galtung’s Definition, is there Negative Peace in Liberia? 45 6.1.1 Absence of Violence 45 6.2 Following Galtung’s Definition, is there Positive Peace in Liberia? 46 6.2.1 Structural Violence 46
6.2.2 Cultural Violence 48 6.3 Summary of Analysis 49 7 Conclusion 51 8 References 54
List of Abbreviations CPA Comprehensive Peace Agreement ECOMOG Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group GPI Global Peace Index HDI Human Development Index HRW Human Rights Watch ICC International Criminal Court INPFL Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia IPE Institute for Economics and Peace LURD Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy MODEL Movement for Democracy in Liberia NPFL National Patriotic Front of Liberia UN United Nations UNMIL United Mission in Liberia
Sida 0(61)
1 Introduction
1.1 Introduction, Research Problem and Relevance By the end of World War two in 1945, the United Nations (UN) was established, and the main objective of the organization was to build and preserve peace and security. The concept of peacekeeping arose soon after, in 1948, at the beginning of the Cold War as a means to avoid a new full- scale war. From the beginning, the missions were limited to securing and sustaining ceasefire agreements and supporting countries in their efforts to peacefully end conflicts (United Nations Peacekeeping, 2021a). In 1948, the first UN peacekeeping mission was set up in the Middle East to supervise the ceasefire between Israel and its neighbouring countries (United Nations Peacekeeping, 2021b). As time went by, the conditions of peacekeeping started changing from more of an observing and supporting perspective, and by the end of the Cold War, peacekeeping was involving more hands-on multidimensional missions (Howard and Dayal, 2017). The UN has since the beginning of peacekeeping mandated 70 peacekeeping missions, and of those, there are today 13 missions ongoing (United Nations Peacekeeping, 2021a).
The scope of UN peacekeeping transformed over time and by the 21st century the tasks of the UN peacekeeping became more complex which required larger and longer-term operations (Hunt, 2017). Although much has been learned since the first peacekeeping operation, operations of course still encountered numerous challenges. It started becoming difficult for the missions to deliver when being so large, complex and multidimensional, it was challenging to construct and implement manageable strategies of development for the peacekeeping missions that had reached a certain level of stability, as well as difficulties preparing for what the future would look like (United Nations Peacekeeping, 2021a).
1(61)
Although the number of ongoing peacekeeping missions has decreased since the beginning of the 21st century, it does not mean that the UN will not have further challenges and tasks (Hunt, 2017). Peacekeeping missions will continue to be one of the UNs main tasks as conflicts within and between counties still emerge. The extent of the mandates given the peacekeeping missions and the political complexity the missions have to juggle are very broad, but the goals of peacekeeping missions are to support the political processes, engage and assist in disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of ex-combatants, facilitate democratic electoral processes, assist in reestablishing the rule of law as well as promote and support human rights (United Nations Peacekeeping, 2021a).
The utility of UN peacekeeping missions, whether they are good or bad, successes or failures, helping establish peace or not has been discussed for decades, and the debate is still ongoing. However, there is a research gap when it comes to evaluations of UN peacekeeping missions a few years after the mission is finished and deemed successful. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to contribute to and fill that gap and provide a study that aims to investigate if the UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia (UNMIL) that was deemed successful managed to establish sustainable peace that is still going strong by using Johan Galtung's definition of peace and violence.
In 2016 all the security responsibilities in the country were transferred from the UN to the Liberian government as had been decided the year prior. However, UNMIL was completely finished in 2018. Between 2016 and 2018 the UN was primarily in Liberia to support the government in furthering the peace process (United Nations Peacekeeping, 2021c). Therefore, this study will be using the year of 2016 up to 2021 in order to evaluate the main findings of whether or not the UN peacekeeping mission established sustainable peace in Liberia. This study is of great relevance since it contributes to the discussion of the utility of UN peacekeeping missions,
2(61)
what goals the UN sets for its missions, if those goals are enough, and if the goals set by the UN provides a foundation for long-lasting sustainable peace. Should peacekeeping aim for negative peace, meaning just the absence of direct violence? Or should peacekeeping aim for positive peace, meaning the absence of direct, structural and cultural violence? This study will provide a foundation of discussion of these questions.
1.2 Objective and Research Questions The objective of this study is to contribute to the debate on the utility of peacekeeping by analyzing the case of the UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia and its long-term effects on the status of peace in the country. Conducting this study several years after the mission was deemed successful in 2018 will provide an answer to if a successful UN peacekeeping operation can translate into long term sustainable peace. The following research questions have been identified:
• What were the objectives of the UNMIL and did they succeed according to the UN? • How is the UNMIL perceived by secondary sources? • How could peace in Liberia be evaluated today, five years after the UN peacekeeping mission handed over the security related responsibilities to Liberian authorities?
1.3 Disposition This thesis is divided into seven chapters including this introduction chapter. Chapter two presents previous research on the debate about UN peacekeeping operations in general, as well as previous research on UNMIL. The research gap is presented in this chapter as well. Chapter three presents the theoretical framework, starting by outlining the UN definition of peace and peacekeeping, then covering different theories of peace including Johan
3(61)
Galtung's theory of peace and violence, everyday peace, and relational peace. Then an argument is presented as to which theory of peace suits this study best and will therefore be used. Chapter four covers the methodology used in this study, as well as the arguments leading up to the decision. Chapter five outlines the findings collected through multiple international sources. In chapter six the findings will be analyzed based on the theory, and in the concluding chapter, chapter seven, there is a discussion of the findings and analysis, as well as a conclusion.
4(61)
2 Literature Review
2.1 The Debate About United Nations Peacekeeping As mentioned in the introduction, the UN has mandated 70 peacekeeping missions, and the timeframe and number of peacekeeping operations provide us with a lot of literature on the subject of peacekeeping together with various discussions of what factors provide the foundation for successful missions and vice versa, as well as the utility of peacekeeping as a whole. There have been discussions throughout the years about how effective peacekeeping missions are and why similar missions succeed, and others do not. The UN has during the last few years approved a large number of peacekeeping operations that are mandated under Chapter VII instead of Chapter VI of the UN charter. Chapter VII operations are mandated to use violence on an operational level compared to peacekeeping operations mandated under Chapter VI where violence is only permitted in situations of self-defense (Hunt, 2017). It is argued that this shift in mandated operations is a result of some of the failed UN peacekeeping operations occurring after the Cold War (Tull, 2018). This shift from peacekeepers not having an extensive mandate to use force into having it has blurred the lines between peacekeeping and peace enforcement in certain peacekeeping operations (see e.g., Berdal and Ucko, 2015; Hunt, 2017; Howard and Dayal, 2017; Tull, 2018).
However, several scholars suggest that peacekeeping operations mandated by the UN successfully manage to decrease the number of casualties in battle- related conflicts that are ongoing. Larger troops with strong operational skills possess an increased chance of succeeding with their mission to reduce violence and protect civilians (see e.g., Hultman, Kathman and Shannon, 2013; Hultman, Kathman and Shannon, 2014; Haass and Ansorg, 2018). Other scholars suggest that larger, robust peacekeeping operations also manage to, in addition to protecting civilians, prevent spreading the conflict
5(61)
further by separating the conflicting actors and restricting their movement (Beardsley and Gleditsch, 2015). According to some researchers, multidimensional peacekeeping operations that are well financed and with a large, well organized troop are the most effective missions and those missions also manage to compensate for shortcomings that might appear on the local level in the conflict affected area (see e.g., Doyle and Sambanis, 2006; Hegre, Hultman and Nygard, 2019).
What these scholars mentioned above all agree about are three main statements: first, the level of effectiveness a peacekeeping operation can reach is dependent on available resources, the size of the military troops and the level of competence the troop possesses. Second, traditional missions are less effective than multidimensional missions that are powerful and steady. Third, peacekeeping operations are effective when it comes to decreasing casualties in civil war if the operations have the resources mentioned above.
However, others argue that successful outcomes of UN peacekeeping operations are not dependent on troop size and military skills, but rather on how the local cooperation and decision-making functions, how actors manage to bargain with each and if compromises are made between actors. The UN peacekeeping operations seem to have neglected that feature lately to a large extent (da Costa and Karlsrud, 2013). When peacekeeping operations do not involve and cooperate with local actors, there is a risk it will lose legitimacy in the eyes of the local community. Another important feature is to have national and local staff operating within international organizations, rather than only foreign staff (see e.g., Richmond, 2011; da Costa and Karlsrud, 2013; Leonardsson and Rudd, 2015; Maschietto, 2019). These arguments all suggest that the most important reason if a UN peacekeeping operation fails or succeeds is not the size and capacity of military troops, but rather how local actors are involved and engaged in the process of building peace.
6(61)
Still other scholars argue that some of the basic norms and principles of UN peacekeeping can undermine the actual peace process, and intensify conflict (see e.g., Lipson, 2007; Okada 2020; Okada and White, 2020). Although there are peacekeeping operations that have been classified as successful, there are a large number of operations that have failed which has caused a slight backlash in peacekeeping (Okada and White, 2020). The UN is in some situations forced to stand by contradictory values for actors to view the UN as a representative of their interests (Lipson, 2007). However, norms and values within the UN, such as a country’s sovereignty and multilateralism, do not always align with actions taken by the organization to achieve goals in peacekeeping operations. In multiple peacekeeping operations the UN is accused of having failed to protect civilians and in addition to that being a source of harm to the civilians in conflict-affected areas in various cases, such as Haiti (Okada and White, 2020). Lipson (2007) maintains that although the UN as an organization has certain rhetoric, actions such as peacekeeping operations do not always match the rhetoric. Since the end of the Cold War, actions not matching rhetoric have been made to a larger extent than before, such as the failure to stop the genocide in Rwanda, or failing to protect civilians in Bosnia (Lipson, 2007). The reputation of UN peacekeeping operations has - not surprisingly - gotten worse since reports of abuse and sexual exploitation exercised by peacekeepers have emerged. The UN and responsible individuals for such actions are rarely held accountable, which leaves victims of UN peacekeepers without any resolution (Okada and White, 2020). These arguments suggest that UN peacekeeping operations may well be interpreted as contradicting by the local populations and that the legitimacy of such operations decreases when justice is not preserved and neither individuals nor the organization is held accountable for actions that have harmed the local populations (Lipson, 2007; Collinge, 2019; Okada 2020; Okada and White, 2020).
7(61)
Studies are discussing and analyzing whether or not UN peacekeeping operations are contributing to short- or long-lasting peace. Evidence suggests that it is hard to determine since there are many different outcomes (see e.g., Bueno de Mesquita and Downs, 2006; Sambanis, 2008; Steinert and Grimm, 2014; Kenkel and Foley, 2021). There are several missions where the UN has not been able to contribute enough to ensure short term peace, such as South Sudan, Mali, Burundi and the Central African Republic (Kenkel and Foley, 2021). Some presents evidence that shows that most military interventions that are intended to promote democracy, and a democratization process is the ultimate goal, rarely achieve democratization at the end (Bueno de Mesquita and Downs, 2006), while others suggest that UN peacekeeping operations which main focus is democratization have good chances of paving way for democratization (Steinert and Grimm, 2014). Chances of recovering after civil war are higher in countries that have had a UN peacekeeping mission compared to countries that suffer civil war and where the UN does not get involved with peacekeeping missions (Sambanis, 2008).
2.2 United Nations Peacekeeping in Liberia Studies focusing on the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Liberia, have been rather mixed. Many underline that there were patterns of sexual abuse during the presence of UN personnel in Liberia, suggesting that although there was zero-tolerance for any sexual exploitation and abuse it was still widely spread and performed by UN personnel in Liberia (see e.g., Neudorfer, 2015; Beber, Gilligan, Guardado and Karim, 2016; Blakemore, Freedman and Lemay-Hébert, 2019). A survey made in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, conducted amongst Liberian women in the summer of 2012 presents that over 50% of women between eighteen and thirty years old has engaged in transactional sex (Beber, Gilligan, Guardado and Karim, 2016). The survey shows that the vast majority of the women have had such transactional sex with UN peacekeeping personnel, and the most common
8(61)
reason is to receive money. Transactional sex means women having to perform sexual favours in return for money, gifts or favours (Beber, Gilligan, Guardado and Karim, 2016). Three categories of women engaging in transactional sex are explained. First, the prostitutes are organized and sold by pimps or likewise (Neudorfer, 2015). Second, women trade sexual favors for money to manage their everyday life, and do not look upon themselves as prostitutes. Third, women start relationships with foreign men or men connected to international organizations, such as personnel from the UN, to raise their living standards (Neudorfer, 2015).
Another article regarding sexual abuse during the UNMIL goes deeply into how the UN peacekeeping mission failed with keeping children safeguarded from sexual abuse in Liberia (Blakemore, Freedman and Lemay-Hébert, 2019). Stronger structures and processes are needed to hold abusers accountable, as well as the necessity of encouraging the victims to report sexual abuse, and for that to work, accountability for illegal actions must work. There are deep structural issues with how the UN is handling such problems (Blakemore, Freedman and Lemay-Hébert, 2019). Various solutions to the problems are presented by the scholars. There is a need for a system that will encourage women locally, regionally and internationally to report sexual violence and abuse (Neudorfer, 2015; Blakemore, Freedman and Lemay-Hébert, 2019). In addition to that, a system is needed that, to a greater extent, will hold UN personnel accountable for their actions (Neudorfer, 2015; Blakemore, Freedman and Lemay-Hébert, 2019).
Other case studies that have been made on the peacekeeping mission in Liberia suggest that UNMIL has had a politically positive impact on the country. Local citizens engaging with UN peacekeepers and personnel from other democratic international organizations and actors have made democratic values and political participation increase (Mvukiyehe, 2017).
9(61)
Other case studies of Liberia taking a gender approach discuss how the UNMIL has affected local women. How peacekeeping affects economic opportunities positively through agricultural programs, micro-finances, and skills training, employment opportunities, and also how trade increases when peacekeepers purchase goods from the local communities. Negative aspects are increasing transactional sex as mentioned before, which once again suggests a great need for protection and recourses for women in conflict- affected areas (Aning and Edu-Afful, 2013). Another gender-based case study of UNMIL aims to explain two things. First, if women working in peacekeeping operations identify themselves as contributors to making operations more effective, and how locals perceive female peacekeepers contributing to peacekeeping. Results show that the perception female peacekeepers have is that they do contribute to the operation. However, they do not have the opportunities to contribute to their fullest potential, which implies that there are barriers in peacekeeping when it comes to gender (Karim, 2016).
Although there is an extensive amount of literature covering the subject of peacekeeping since the introduction of the concept, most of the literature focuses on the utility of peacekeeping, whether it is good or bad, desirable or not desirable, or specific singular features during a peacekeeping mission, or if peacekeeping is desirable or not because of various outcomes of UN peacekeeping missions. However, whether peacekeeping provides the necessary tools for conflict affected areas to accomplish long-lasting peace rather than short-term peace, how the goals of different UN peacekeeping missions relate to the ultimate goal of ‘keeping peace’ and if those goals are enough, is not discussed in the current literature. This study aims to investigate this gap in the research by conducting a case study of the UNMIL.
10(61)
Multiple evaluations and case studies can be found that focus on the UN peacekeeping missions in Liberia, but there is a lack of studies covering how the situation in Liberia is in 2021, several years after the mission was completed and deemed successful. It is common that studies focus on evaluating the peacekeeping missions, as the UN themselves also does, but there is a gap in the research when it comes to evaluating the state of peace in a country a few years after a peacekeeping mission has been finished, and especially when the mission is said to have been successful. The same goes for the peacekeeping operation in Liberia. Therefore, this study aims to contribute to filling up that gap, starting by investigating the UNMIL that was deemed a successful mission, and explore the outcomes of the mission five years after the security related responsibilities was handed over from the UNMIL to the Liberian government in 2016.
11(61)
3 Theoretical Framework In order to evaluate what kind of peace Liberia has achieved, it is necessary to, first, present how the UN defines peace and peacekeeping. Second, definitions of peace and measurements of peace will be presented.
3.1 United Nations Definition of Peace and Peacekeeping There is no specific outlined definition of the concept of peace or peacekeeping within the UN. However, there are guidelines for peacekeeping, and every peacekeeping mission works under a mandate and is financed differently depending on how big the mission is and what is needed.
The reason for the creation of the United Nation was for it to work towards maintaining peace and security internationally, and to have an organization that has mandates to intervene when threats to peace and security arise. The goals and activities of peacekeeping missions are often similar to the ones of peacebuilding, humanitarian assistance, conflict prevention and peacemaking which makes the definition of peacekeeping overlap with definitions of the other concepts mentioned (Cheng-Hopkins, 2010). Peacekeeping is an activity that can contribute to both prevention of conflict in or between states, and at the same time encourage peacemaking. A peacekeeping mission is a UN presence in a country involving the UN military and/or police force as well as civilian personnel (United Nations General Assembly, 1992). The goal of peacekeeping missions is for them to interrupt and hamper conflicts and to promote and sustain peace. Successful peacekeeping missions are seen as providing a strong foundation for sustainable peacebuilding once the conflict is resolved, which can hold back possible relapses into violence in or between countries (United Nations General Assembly, 1992).
12(61)
Successful peacekeeping operations are believed to include an overall motivation to establish and strengthen organizations aiming to consolidate peace in a country and amongst its people. Agreements resulting in peace between conflicting actors includes activities such as the disarmament of the actors involved in the conflict, the revival of order in societies, management of weapons, in some cases even destruction of weapons, recovery of refugees, support security staff in forms of information and education, assist in monitoring elections, promote actions to protect human rights, assist the government in strengthening and/or reconstructing institutions and encourage political participation (United Nations General Assembly, 1992).
The purpose of UN peacekeeping operations has developed overtime and has become multidimensional. This means that UN peacekeeping operations no longer exclusively are summoned on the basis of establishing peace and security. Today, other features may be included in the peacekeeping operations, such as support political processes, assist in the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of soldiers, protect civilians, preserve and promote human rights, assisting and supporting building or reconstruction of institutions and support for democratic political development. The overall mission goal all UN peacekeeping operations have in common is to provide security, political support, and peacekeeping support in conflict affected countries, on their journey towards peace (United Nations Peacekeeping, 2021d). UN peacekeeping has three ground principles which are: consent of the parties, impartiality, and non-use of force except in self-defense and defense of the mandate. Consent of the parties means that the main actors in the conflict must approve the peacekeeping mission. This is important since it provides the peacekeepers the freedom to carry out their tasks their mandate has given them in the country. Impartiality means that the UN peacekeeping mission is impartial and unbiased when handling the different parties of the conflict, however, the mission is not neutral in implementing
13(61)
their given mandate. Impartiality is important for the peacekeeping mission to sustain the given consent from the parties involved in the conflict. Non- use of force except in self-defense and defense of the mandate means that violence is only to be used as a last resort and with the mindset of causing as little damage as possible (United Nations Peacekeeping, 2021e).
The success or failure of peacekeeping is extremely dependent on if political processes are sustainable and if they are actively working towards peace. Peacekeeping is not a replacement for lacking national efforts, and it cannot replace political will to end conflict within the host state or between states, but is rather a system to support national efforts in their work towards peace and stability. UN peacekeeping missions assist in establishing a foundation for conflict affected countries to become more resistant to further conflict or falling back into conflict. Through identifying and scrutinizing the causes of conflict, the foundation for sustainable long-term peace can be laid (United Nations Peacekeeping, 2021f).
3.2 Different Conceptualizations of Peace
3.2.1 Johan Galtungs Definition of Peace and Violence The Norwegian sociologist and peace researcher Johan Galtung is the creator of the basis of our understanding of peace up to this day. According to Galtung (1964), to conceptualize peace, two terms are needed. One is positive peace, and the other is negative peace (Galtung, 1964). To understand the terms, an explanation of their origins is necessary. The concept of peace and the concept of violence are closely related, and because of that link Galtung has developed the concept of peace even more as well as developed various classifications of violence (Galtung, 1969). The classifications of violence are cultural violence, structural violence, direct violence, natural violence and time violence (Galtung, 1996). Natural violence is violence that is out of human control such as natural disasters,
14(61)
and time violence is out of human control as well and is related to sustainability for generations to come (Galtung, 1996). Because the two categories explained are out of human control, the focus will be placed on the other three categories. Cultural violence is described as violence towards aspects of culture, such as religion, ideology, language and art, as well as empirical and formal science. Cultural violence is an attack on aspects of culture that can validate and encourage structural or direct violence towards cultures (Galtung, 1969). General beliefs of what normally is bad behaviour transform into something generally accepted which creates a platform for structural and/or direct violence (Galtung and Fischer, 2013). Structural violence is described as the structures within any constellation of people, a community, society, country for example, that causes oppression, exploitation, discrimination or anything that can cause suffering for individuals. Structural violence is often indirect violence since it is rarely performed by one person upon another (Galtung, 1996). Direct violence is any violence that involves verbal violence, hurting and/or killing people. It is performed intentionally and individuals or groups are targets. Direct violence always has an executor and a victim/several victims (Galtung, 1969).
These three categories of violence are often linked, however, there is no set structure of one coming first and provokes the others (Galtung and Fischer, 2013). From these three categories, two concepts of peace are presented; positive peace and negative peace. Positive and negative peace can be present at the same time, but one can also exist without the other (Galtung, 1964). The absence of all sorts of violence that humans can control, namely cultural, structural and direct violence is positive peace. Values that explain positive peace are cooperation, integration and harmony, which indicates that positive peace is, in addition to the absence of violence, also a sense of belonging and cooperation to process past experiences and avoid conflict in
15(61)
the future (Galtung and Fischer, 2013). When there is positive peace, individuals have the chance to grow to their full potential (Galtung, 1996).
Negative peace, on the other hand, is exclusively the absence of direct violence. In constellations where there is negative peace, there is some sort of coexistence between the people, however, it is passive and can still sometimes involve violence such as verbal clashes and conflicts between individuals (Galtung and Fischer, 2013). Resolving a conflict only through eradicating direct violence and reaching negative peace, there will still be tension between people and groups which may cause conflict again (Galtung and Fischer, 2013). Peacekeeping may have a goal to reach negative peace as a first step, while positive peace is peace-making and stabilizing relationships primarily as a whole (Galtung, 1985).
3.2.2 Everyday Peace MacGiny (2014) explains everyday peace as how individuals and groups behave and operate in everyday life in societies that are or have experienced conflict and are somewhat divided. Based on norms and practices learned over time, individuals and groups make conscious or unconscious decisions of how they act and express themselves in different constellations to avoid conflict. These mechanisms to avoid conflict can be found in any society and they are constantly evolving and are something individuals learn through observation, common sense, making mistakes and learning from them (MacGinty, 2014). Because everyday peace is something that individuals learn over time, it means that everyday peace is something very dependent on existing preconditions and given context (MacGinty, 2014).
Three main conclusions have been drawn from a number of studies conducted by the authors in four African countries where people have been asked what their perception of peace is. First, a vast majority of the people's perception of peace is defined by security-related indicators, while indicators
16(61)
relating to human rights issues were rarely used to define people's perception of peace. Second, indicators connected to positive peace are more common in societies that experienced conflict and violence further away in time in comparison to societies that experienced conflict and violence closer in time. This conclusion adds to the notion that perceptions in societies are always evolving and are circumstantial. The third conclusion argues that more research is needed on the connection between peacebuilding and the security of citizens (Firchow and MacGinty, 2017). It is important to be careful when measuring political violence, especially when placing an ending date for such measurements. Such perceptions are dynamic and evolving which means certain indicators of peace and safety can be one thing in one society, and one thing in another society. It depends on circumstances (Firchow and MacGinty, 2017).
Everyday peace has, because of its bottom-up perspective, features that national and international top-down approaches may have difficulties identifying and organizing, and can therefore add to the international top- down indicators to provide a complementary way of measuring peace (see e.g., MacGinty, 2014; Firchow and MacGinty, 2017).
3.2.3 Relational Peace Söderström (et al. 2020) argue that peace should be interpreted as a relationship between individuals, groups, communities and/or nations, rather than as a process, a situation or an end result (Söderström, Åkebo and Jarstad, 2020). Three features of relational peace are presented by Söderström, and those are important in order to be able to define it. Those are; behavioural interaction, subjective attitudes towards each other, and the understanding of the relationship between the actors (Söderström, Åkebo and Jarstad, 2020).
17(61)
Behavioural interaction includes three kinds of behaviours. First there is deliberation, which refers to public engagement in political activities on the basis of non-violence. Deliberation provides a foundation where views and ideas can be exchanged, as well as actors arguing for their positions(Söderström, Åkebo and Jarstad, 2020). Second there is non- domination, which refers to the idea of being free from domination by an arbitrary power. However, in most relationships there is domination to some extent, but this can also change over time (Söderström, Åkebo and Jarstad, 2020). The third component of behavioural interaction is cooperation. Cooperation means that actors actively need to develop together and work towards mutually complementary goals (Söderström, Åkebo and Jarstad, 2020).
The second feature in relational peace is the subjective attitudes in the relationship. Recognition and trust are two main features of subjective attitudes (Söderström, Åkebo and Jarstad, 2020). First, in a relationship, interactions between actors are needed in order to reach mutual recognition, and recognition can be explained as actors accepting each other's existence. Second, the solidity of a relationship, as well as the level of cooperation, is very much dependent on the level of trust between the actors. Building up the trust in relationships are very important, and is mostly done by solving misunderstandings, reducing discrimination and injusticies, and adjustments in behaviour are often necessary (Söderström, Åkebo and Jarstad, 2020).
The third feature, the understanding of the relationship between the actors, means that in order to have a peaceful relationship, actors need to see one another as fellows or friends (Söderström, Åkebo and Jarstad, 2020). A fellowship means that the relationship between actors may not be friendly, however, there is an acceptance of coexistence (Söderström, Åkebo and Jarstad, 2020). The second concept is friendship, which to a larger extent means that the actors in this relationship are well known to each other and
18(61)
there are likely shared visions between the actors, and there is no competing between them like there can be in a fellow relationship because moral obligations are involved in friendships to a larger extent (Söderström, Åkebo and Jarstad, 2020).
The three components presented, behavioral interaction, subjective attitudes towards each other, and the understanding of the relationship between the actors, with their under categories explain what relational peace is and consists of. Each of the components can boost the others, and they all can be applied on different kinds of relationships, as well as each one of the components can be present to different extents (Söderström, Åkebo and Jarstad, 2020).
3.3 The Definition of Peace Used by This Study According to Firchow and MacGinty, in order to measure everyday peace correctly, the proper way of doing it would be conducting a field study, doing interviews and handing out questionnaires, for this case to local people in one or more communities in Liberia to see what their perception of peace is. That is not a possibility because of the current situation in the world with an ongoing pandemic. Measuring relational peace is not an option in this study either since it focuses on investigating relationships between actors, which is not the objective of this study.
Although everyday peace and relational peace are interesting ways of measuring peace, the analysis of the current situation in Liberia in this study will be based on Johan Galtung's definition of peace and violence. The argument leading up to that decision is first that Galtung's theory is the basis of our understanding of peace up to this day. Second, it is useful since the theory can be applied by conducting a desk study and using secondary sources. Third, it contributes with different nuances of peace, negative and positive, which can be analysed depending on the findings of this study. This
19(61)
study will therefore use Galtung's theoretical framework for peace and violence as a lens through which to analyze the UN definition of peacekeeping, its goals with the peacekeeping mission in Liberia, and the outcomes of the peacekeeping mission in Liberia. I will also apply it and use it when analyzing information presented by other international sources evaluating the situation in Liberia.
20(61)
4 Methodology This chapter describes and justifies the methodological framework that was used to conduct this study, as well as the reasoning for the chosen sources and the case used. Limitations and delimitations will also be presented. Describing the course of action for the study, the type of sources that will be used and how the data the study is based on have been collected increases the reliability of the study.
4.1 Qualitative Desk Study Qualitative research is a method commonly used in social sciences. The relationship between research and theory is what both qualitative and quantitative research is interested in. The difference between qualitative and quantitative research is that qualitative research is the study of words which means that the data used in such studies commonly are texts, and quantitative research is the study of numbers (Bryman, 2016). Because of this difference, qualitative research is generally used in inductive or abductive approaches, where in this case the abductive approach is chosen. Qualitative research is usually based on open-ended questions (Creswell and Creswell, 2018). When conducting research, there are two main sources of data to be used which are primary research which means collecting new data, and secondary research which aims at collecting data already published and reviewing it. Secondary research is known as a desk study, and this kind of research allows the researcher to analyse a wide range of sources, which means it is possible to gather large amounts of data, of which the outcome is more representative findings (Johnston, 2017). The decision to conduct a qualitative desk study was based upon the research objective of this study and the literature available to collect the data necessary.
21(61)
4.2 Abductive Reasoning Compared to an inductive approach which is theory building, or a deductive approach which starts with a theory and builds from it with an aim to criticize, confirm, modify or develop it, an abductive approach uses a theory as a lens through which to analyze and interpret society or the case that is being studied (Bryman, 2016). Abductive reasoning is a way of contributing with a new understanding to the phenomenon that is studied, and it provides a conclusion that is built on one or multiple observations (Bryman, 2016). It is of great interest to use the abductive approach if the research aims to understand how events and discourses can affect a system or a context. Abductive reasoning will be used in this study because of its relevance when conducting case studies since it has the ability to provide deeper understanding to cases and events (Bryman, 2016).
4.3 Case Study This study is based on a single case study, where the UNMIL is being studied. A case study is a scientific method where a specific event or phenomenon is studied in-depth, and there can be studies where only one single case is studied, or there can be multiple cases studied within a case study (Bryman, 2016). When conducting a case study which aims to investigate a certain individual or a country a single case study is to prefer. It is possible to conduct a case study so that the result can be representative for a distinct object, however, case studies are commonly hard to generalize beyond the specific case studied (Bryman, 2016). One of the main critiques directed towards the case study method is that when researchers select the case or cases, which is the most important part of the study, they are at big risk of being biased and choosing case or cases on the wrong foundations. It is very important for the researcher to bear in mind the objective of the study, and from the objective choose a case or multiple cases (George and Bennett, 2005). The main objective of this study is to evaluate the level of peace that
22(61)
is maintained in a country several years after a peacekeeping mission was finished and deemed successful. Therefore, a single case study is the most suitable method for this study. It will be an in-depth study of the UN peacekeeping mission and the case strategically chosen is Liberia because the country meets the criterias of the objective of this study. The UN recently finished their peacekeeping mission, UNMIL, in Liberia and the mission was deemed successful. Based on UNMIL being a, according to the UN, successful mission it is relevant to evaluate the state of peace in the country as of today to investigate if it is still possible to call the mission successful.
4.4 Text Analysis Text analysis refers to the process of analyzing various sorts of texts that the researcher then extracts valuable information from and then transforms into qualitative data that is useful for the study. This is a commonly used method in social science research (Bryman, 2016). It is of great importance to investigate the UNMIL and the goals the mission worked by, and what kind of peace the UN aimed to reach with the mission it is important to in order to come to a conclusion of what kind of peace was reached in Liberia. This investigation is made through searching for information regarding this in various sources of written information, which in this study was done through text analysis.
4.5 Sources and Validity The data used in this study is based on multiple different secondary sources. When researchers use secondary sources, there needs to be an awareness of the possibility of shortcomings, as for example the limitation of control of the quality of the data that is being used. It is also important to be aware of who the editor and publisher of the data is, because there is a risk of information being biased, nonrepresentative and misinterpretations (Bryman, 2016). However, using multiple secondary sources is a way of ensuring the
23(61)
validity of the study (Creswell and Creswell, 2018), which in this study is done through using extensive literature that includes different sources from different institutions, databases, international organizations and such. The main sources used in this study are annual reports, documents, and articles collected primarily from the UN, with the purpose of using the UN as a source to investigate what their goals and objectives with the UNMIL was, and how they define peace. The Global Peace Index, the Human Development Index, Freedom House, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Transparency International are other international sources with various databases that describe humanitarian, political, and social situations in countries all over the world. These sources are used to investigate what kind of peace Liberia has achieved from other perspectives rather than just the UN perspective of peace and successful peacekeeping operations.
4.6 Limitations and Delimitations Limitations of this study include the accessibility of information regarding the quality of peace today in Liberia, as well as quality of the data collected. Lack of accessible information is firstly because the most recent progress report made by the UN on Liberia was done in 2018, and things might have changed since then up until now. When it comes to the quality of the data, when gathered from organizations it can be biased. However, this study includes several different sources of data which, as mentioned earlier, ensures the validity of the study which means this should not be an issue. A third limitation is that there might be sources of information that are classified and not accessible for me to use regarding the peace process in Liberia, and the UN contribution. The theories that will be used to analyze if there is peace, and what kind of peace it is in Liberia today, might not cover all aspects that are important to include in the definition of peace, which is something to keep in mind.
24(61)
Delimitations of this study is, first, that I have chosen to only investigate one UN peacekeeping operation in one country, in order to be able to do an in- depth analysis that is manageable with the time frame given for this study. Second, since it is a single case study, it will not be representative of all peacekeeping operations by the UN. For that reason, it is important to emphasize that no general conclusions shall be drawn from the results of this study. However, this study will highlight the definitions of peace and if and how different international actors view peace differently, and what the consequences of that might be.
4.7 Ethical Considerations Ethical considerations are not relevant for this study since it is a desk study that is based on secondary sources, which means already published data and material.
25(61)
5 Findings
5.1 Background Liberia Liberia has experienced multiple cycles of violence, with the first civil war lasting between 1989 and 1996. The country had a few years of peace between 1996 and 1999, although the peace was considered to be very fragile. Civil war broke out again in 1999 and lasted until 2003 (Nilsson, 2009).
5.1.1 Conflict Background Liberia was founded in 1822, and due to the transportation and replacement of American slaves to Liberia, it became an American colony in Africa (Dennis, 2006). In 1847 Liberia achieved independence with support from an American organization named the American Colonization society. The freed slaves that had arrived in Liberia, also known as Americo-Liberians, took control over the political, economic, and social arenas and their descendants remained in control for over 100 years. During this time, the distribution of power was extremely uneven, which would later be one of the core reasons for later conflicts (Dennis, 2006). However, Samuel Doe became the leader of Liberia after overthrowing the American-Liberian oligarchy in 1980 after a staged coup. Doe developed Liberia into a military dictatorship and established a leadership based on the ethnic group named Krahn. He did it by appointing most high political and military positions to people of Krahn ethnicity, which he himself also belonged to (Olcay and Bayram, 2020). In December of 1989, Charles Taylor, the leader of the rebel group National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), entered Liberia from the Ivory Coast intending to overthrow Samuel Doe which was the starting point of the first cycle of civil war (Khalfan, 2020). Taylors’ fighters were of other ethnicities than Krahn, mainly Gio and Mano and had therefore suffered tremendous discrimination and violence under the Doe regime, and wanted political change in Liberia (Olcay and Bayram, 2020).
26(61)
Before the UN got the mandate for a peacekeeping operation in Liberia in 2003, other organisations had already tried to establish peace. In 1990, a few months after the NPFL entered Liberia, the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) entered with a peacekeeping mandate (UNMIL, 2021a). Countries involved in ECOMOG were Guinea, Benin, Togo, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal, although not all of those nations were involved in the mission in Liberia (UNMIL, 2021b). However, what was meant to be a peacekeeping mission soon turned into an enforcement mission after the group suffered casualties caused by attacks by the NPFL (Nilsson, 2009). Later the same year Samuel Doe was captured and killed by the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL) which was a fraction of the NPLF that had been created during the ongoing conflict (Olcay and Bayram, 2020). Various attempts to establish interim governments capable of controlling the country were made during the war but without any success. Other smaller rebel groups developed as well as the war went on causing the conflict to intensify heavily (Nilsson, 2009).
5.1.2 Cease-fire Agreement In 1995 a cease-fire was agreed upon by all combating actors in the conflict, this agreement was the Abuja I peace agreement. The Abuja I peace agreement was however broken by increased fighting between the NPFL, the armed forces of Liberia, and various other rebel groups active in the conflict (Ikomi, 2007). However, in 1996, the Abuja II peace agreement was agreed upon and signed, making the first cycle of civil war coming to an end (Nilsson, 2009). ECOMOG had, according to the peace agreement, received the task to rebuild the security sector in Liberia. This reconstruction needed resources to an extent that was not available for the ECOMOG, and in addition to the lack of resources, the time frame given for the task made led to the reconstruction not being followed through by the ECOMOG. Instead,
27(61)
the task was given to the person who had won the first presidential election in Liberia post-conflict in 1997, which was Charles Taylor (Nilsson, 2009). There were around 500 international observers monitoring the 1997 election in Liberia, and although the organization of the election and electoral rules was agreed upon by all political parties involved, it was clear that it was in Taylor’s favour (Harris, 1999). Instead of building a security sector benefitting Liberia as a country, he established a security sector for himself in order to constrain the population and promote his personal interests. This led to Taylor going after the opposition, attempting to eradicate any political opposition in the country. Many people were arrested, incarcerated, murdered or had to leave Liberia and go into exile (Nilsson, 2009).
This in turn led to a new rebel group named Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) forming outside the Liberian borders. Although LURD was formally founded in the year 2000, it was an active rebel group in 1999 with their main base in Guinea, from where they that year staged an armed attack with the objective to overthrow Taylor and remove him from power (Olcay and Bayram, 2020). After some time, another significant rebel group named Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) got involved in the conflict as well, supported by the Ivory Coast, which at the beginning of 2003 resulted in Taylor and his army having two fronts to fight in the civil war. The humanitarian situation in Liberia escalated as the conflict intensified, and in June of 2003, a ceasefire agreement was signed by LURD, MODEL and the government of Liberia (UNMIL, 2021a). However, the ceasefire agreement was broken when rebel groups attacked the capital of Liberia and the conflict continued in the country while the peace agreement was under negotiation in Accra, Ghana (Khalfan, 2020). The main objective for both LURD and MODEL for signing a peace agreement was for Taylor to step down from power or else there could not be peace in Liberia, but Taylor had no intentions to do so
28(61)
which stalled the negotiations for a long time. Finally, after realizing the big pressure from the international community together with the decreasing power of the state army, Taylor stepped down leaving the power in the hands of Vice-President Moses Blah (Olcay and Bayram, 2020). Taylor moved from Liberia and went to exile in Nigeria (Khalfan, 2020), and was later sought after by the International Criminal Court (Gell and H. Sandler Fellow, 2012). In 2012 he was convicted for crimes committed by Taylor in Sierra Leone including crimes against humanity, terrorism and war crimes, and he was sentenced to 50 years in jail (Gell and H. Sandler Fellow, 2012). The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was finally signed in Accra on August 18 in 2003 (UNMIL, 2021a).
5.1.3 The Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement (2003) What characterized the Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was the inclusiveness in it since representatives from the civil society as well as political parties were involved in the negotiations together with the three main actors, namely the Liberian government, LURD and MODEL (Nilsson, 2009). The main features of the CPA were first that it affirmed the ceasefire agreement that had been set in June 2003 by the three parties involved. A National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL) was to be established together with a National Transitional Legislative Assembly (NTLA), which was another central part of the CPA. The transitional government was established to be inclusive, including members from the political parties and the civil society as chairman and vice-chairman, while 21 ministries were to be divided between all the involved actors. Information regarding the division in the transitional government means that the former rebel groups dominated both the NTGL and the NTLA. However, the division of ministries had been decided upon during the negotiations and was specified in the agreement. In the national assembly, the inclusiveness continued with
29(61)
a distribution of 76 seats amongst all involved actors and the 15 counties in Liberia were also included (Nilsson, 2009).
Another important feature of the CPA was the decision that elections were to be held in two years, October 2005. One of the most important parts of the agreement, to establish and secure peace in Liberia, was the request to have the UN assist in that matter. In the agreement, there is a specific request for a United Nations Chapter VII peacekeeping force to join the work of stabilizing Liberia through supervising the ceasefire and supporting the realization of a peace process in the country (Khalfan, 2020). The United Nations Security Council created the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), a multidimensional peacekeeping mission that was established in Liberia in 2003, to meet the request of a UN Chapter VII force in the CPA. The ultimate goal of the UNMIL was to establish stability and security so that the implementation of the CPA could be fulfilled (Khalfan, 2020). However, one thing about the CPA that stands out is that there was a scheduled timeline for when implementations of specific provisions were to start, but there was only a small number of those that had set deadlines. Of course, there are several important features in the CPA in addition to those mentioned above, such as the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), a Government Reform Commission (GRC), the return of refugees, electoral reforms, human rights issues and many more (Nilsson, 2009).
5.2 The United Nations Mission in Liberia: A Successful Mission This section will answer my first research question “What were the objectives of the UNMIL and did they succeed according to the UN?”.
5.2.1 The UN Mission Objectives The mandates decided for the UNMIL by the Security Council forwarded in Resolution 1509 (2003) are five main tasks which are, first, UNMIL will
30(61)
support and monitor the CPA signed earlier that year, and develop a Disarmament, Demobilization, Rehabilitation and Reintegration action plan for former combatants, as well as collecting and eradicate weapons (UNSC Resolution 1509, 2003). Second, to protect UN personnel and UN facilities, provide protection for civilians who are experiencing threats, and make sure that the freedom of movement is established and maintained (UNSC Resolution 1509, 2003). Third, the UNMIL will be supportive of Humanitarian assistance as well as of Human Rights assistance, and place extra emphasis on vulnerable groups such as internally displaced people, refugees, women and children (UNSC Resolution 1509, 2003). Fourth, the UNMIL will support the reforms and reconstruction of the security sector which will include the development of a civilian police training programme or assisting the training of the civilian police force, and to construct a new national army (UNSC Resolution 1509, 2003). The fifth main task was to assist in the peace process and support the implementation of it. This includes the re-establishment of national authorities around the country, developing a new structural framework for the national legal system as well as the judicial system, and supporting the preparations of upcoming national elections in the country (UNSC Resolution 1509, 2003).
5.2.2 Mission Successes According to the UN, the UNMIL was a successful operation. The mission managed to disarm over 100,000 former combatants and collected over 20,000 weapons as well as over 5 million ammunition. The UNMIL assisted in democratic presidential and legislative elections, as well as assisted in the rebuilding and strengthening of the national security forces. In 2016 the main peacekeeping mission was finished, and the responsibility of the country's security was handed over to the Liberians (United Nations Peacekeeping, 2021g). However, the UNMIL remained a mission in Liberia as a final support until 2018.
31(61)
In the final progress report of the Secretary-General on the UNMIL in April 2018, major developments are presented as well as challenges. The democratic election in Liberia in 2017 is highlighted as a great success, although minor incidents between groups of different interests and allegations of fraud occurred (United Nations Security Council, 2018). However, the election is overall judged as free and fair which marks a big sign of democratic consolidation in Liberia. Limited progress has been made when it comes to achieving the objectives made of reconciliation in the country mostly due to delays in legislation and lack of funding. However, some donor-funded reconciliation activities have been more successful, such as prevention of conflict during the political election and the encouragement of youth participation in political activities and civil society (United Nations Security Council, 2018).
The report presents a stable security situation in Liberia in 2018, with a majority of the recorded incidents between 1 June 2017 to 30 March 2018 being crimes such as theft, robbery, simple assaults, demonstrations and land disputes. The use of force and violence by the Liberian Police Force is reported to be none, which the UN considered in its report as very promising (United Nations Security Council, 2018). Further, Liberia is working hard on developing the structural and organizational capacity within the police force to be able to provide law enforcement services of high quality for the citizens of Liberia. The Liberian Army has however not developed as was hoped, mainly because of lack of fundings. The humanitarian situation has lightened up in the country, and the number of refugees in the country decreased dramatically from 2011 to 2018 (United Nations Security Council, 2018). However, there have been outbreaks of diseases in the region that have caused difficulties, and international organizations such as the World Health
32(61)
Organization supported the country to strengthen its ability to respond to such crises. One challenge highlighted in the report is the violations against human rights. Gender based violence, sexual assaults, rapes, female genital mutilations and such crimes had high rates in 2018, where women and children are the majority of the victims. Societal and cultural factors, as well as inefficiency within the criminal justice system are identified as reasons for such ongoing violations. Finally, Libera is struggling with economic development and experiencing high levels of corruption which affects the Liberian people (United Nations Security Council, 2018).
5.2.3 Outstanding Tasks for Liberia In the report, a lot of emphasis is put on encouraging Liberia to address the root causes of the conflict in order to progress with the consolidation process. There are still features of the conflict that are not resolved within the country, and it is of great importance for Liberia to adopt legislation to address these causes, such as decentralization and land reforms (United Nations Security Council, 2018). These are matters that should be placed in the light and acted on as fast as possible. In addition to that, it is of great importance that the government of Liberia take into consideration the expectations the youth of Liberia has placed on them, and manage to meet these expectations. The young people of Liberia, who constitute a large share of those entitled to vote are expecting social and economic reforms towards equality (United Nations Security Council, 2018). Women and girls are to a larger extent than men and boys very negatively impacted by the bad socioeconomic situation in Liberia as of 2018. Women and girls are, as mentioned above, victims of sexual abuse, poverty, low educational levels and maternal mortality. Therefore, it is of great importance that the government of Liberia put legislative efforts in favor of women in Liberia with a goal to end these inequalities (United Nations Security Council, 2018).
33(61)
5.3 Secondary Literature on the United Nations Mission in Liberia By also investigating how secondary literature sees the outcome of the UNMIL it is possible to triangulate the information gathered from the UN themselves. There is not an extensive number of evaluations available that investigates the successes and failures of the UNMIL. However, sources mainly agree with the UN that the mission was a success overall. However, based on existing reports evaluating the situation in Liberia after the UNMIL left it is possible to say that the UNMIL could have accomplished greater security for civilians, especially women and children (see e.g., Bargués- Pedreny and Martin de Almagro, 2019; Olcay and Bayram, 2020; Karim, 2020). There are also reports of removals of leaders within the Liberian National Police in order for political leaders to replace them with regime friendly substitutes. In addition to that, reports of a formation of new security forces containing regime friendly followers as well, which is extremely worrisome (Karim, 2020). Activities like these were all under control through the monitoring capacity the peacekeeping mission held. Since the end of the UNMIL it has been the responsibility of the Liberian state to make sure to check and review so that such activities do not exist (Karim, 2020). UNMIL has put a lot of effort into establishing new reforms, norms and systems to keep the security in Liberia and prevent gender-based problems overall. However, the most apparent problem brought up by scholars is that the UNMIL has failed to protect women and children from gender-based violence, mostly rape and sexual abuse (Bargués-Pedreny and Martin de Almagro, 2019; Olcay and Bayram, 2020).
5.4 Measuring Liberia’s Peace Today
5.4.1 Global Peace Index Measurement The Global Peace Index (GPI), composed by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IPE) measures peace directly at a national level, ranking 163
34(61)
countries and provinces, using 23 indicators to do so which are both qualitative and quantitative. In their annual reports that have been released since 2009, there is a presentation of a country’s peacefulness in three categories (Institute for Economics & Peace, 2020). These categories are, first, the levels of safety and security in societies which includes indicators measuring things such as crime rates, violent demonstrations, terrorism activity in the country, how the relationships are with neighboring countries, the number of refugees and internally displaced people, and what the political situation looks like. Second, if and to what extent there is ongoing conflict in the country and internationally. Third, the scale of a country’s militarization. Through this, it is possible to detect different trends in peace and what measures should be taken to create peaceful societies, as well as the economic results of peace and conflict. The GPI is measuring peace at a macro level, using various data sources as well as statistical analysis (Institute for Economics & Peace, 2020). Examples of indicators used by the GPI are; weapon imports, weapon exports, deaths of internal conflict, deaths from external conflict, terrorism impact, access to small arms, nuclear and heavy weapons, armed service personnel rate, violent crime and more (Institute for Economics & Peace, 2020).
Many of the indicators used by the GPI are more focused on conflict, violence and war than peace. For that reason, it can be argued that the GPI measures indicators of negative peace (Firchow and MacGinty, 2017). There are no indicators that have a bottom-up perspective of peace. Because of its top-down perspective, it can be argued that it is hard for such measures to cover local perceptions and experiences of peace (Firchow and MacGinty, 2017). When the countries have been evaluated by the index, they are categorized into five levels of peacefulness. These categories are as follows, first, very high levels of peacefulness, second, high levels of peacefulness, third, medium level of peacefulness, fourth, low levels of peacefulness and
35(61)
fifth is very low levels of peacefulness. There is also a category for countries not included (Institute for Economics & Peace, 2020).
In the first report published by the GPI in 2009, Liberia is placed in category two which is a high level of peacefulness. Although there are high levels of perceived criminality in the society, high levels of access to weapons, some violent demonstrations and crimes, including political instability, most of the indicators used in the measurement shows low rates of security and safety related issues (Vision of Humanity, 2021). By 2016, when the UNMIL handed over all security related responsibilities to the Liberian authorities, Liberia had increased its peacefulness even more according to the GPI when evaluating the indicators used. However, the country was still experiencing high levels of perceived criminality in the society, as well as easy access to weapons, violent demonstrations and political instability and placed in category two, which is high peacefulness (Vision of Humanity, 2021). In the 2020 GPI report, Liberia had increased its peacefulness further, although still in the same category as previous years, category two, high peacefulness (Institute for Economics & Peace, 2020).
5.4.2 Human Development Index The Human Development Index (HDI) is a way of measuring human well- being that focuses on how to develop the lives of humans rather than the economies in which humans live. HDI focuses on people, opportunities and choices, suggesting that the basis for human development is a decent living standard, meaning access to resources, knowledge, and the ability to live a long and healthy life with possibilities of creativeness, which are the measurements that the HDI proceeds from, together with the gross national income per capita (Human Development Reports, 2021). The HDI report is a politically independent report that has been released almost every year since 1990 and influences the human development debate in the world from different angles. The report ranks countries from number 1, which is the best
36(61)
ranking with the highest human development, to 189 which is the worst ranking which means the least human development. The numbers of countries included in the ranking has changed over time, but as of 2020 there are 189 countries included (Human Development Reports, 2021).
It is not until the 2009 HDI report that Liberia receives a ranking on the country list, and the ranking is 169 which indicates a low human development status (Klugman, 2009). In the 2016 HDI report, Liberia received the ranking 177 (Jahan, 2016), which is quite a drop since 2009 and interesting since the UNMIL was finished in 2016 on the basis of it having been a successful peacekeeping mission. Reasons for that drop can, according to HDI, depend on natural disasters, climate change, violence and pandemics. The Ebola outbreak in 2014 resulted in hundreds of thousands of children lacking proper education for months because schools were closed, which negatively affected human development in the country (Jahan, 2016). The 2020 HDI report ranked Liberia as the 175th worst country when it comes to human development (United Nations Development Programme, 2020), which is a small increase compared to 2016.
5.4.3 Freedom House As a politically unbound and independent organization Freedom House is through their analysis, their advocacy and support trying to empower people around the world to exercise their fundamental rights (Freedom House, 2021a). The core belief of Freedom House is that in countries with a democratic political system and where the government is accountable for its citizens, freedom will develop and thrive, and although the organization is politically independent it takes stands in political issues worldwide to promote freedom and democracy. Freedom House produces multiple reports of which their annual Freedom in the World is the main one, presenting the previous year's political status in over 200 countries and territories and focuses on political rights and civil liberties (Freedom House, 2021c).
37(61)
Results presented in the “Freedom in the World” report is then placed in a democracy index, where all countries are ranked based on measures ranges on a scale from 1 to 7, where 1 to 2,5 points ranks as “Free” which is the most democratic, 3 to 5 points ranks as “Partly free” which are hybrid regimes, and 5,5 to 7 points ranks as “Not free” which is autocracies (Freedom House, 2021c).
In the 2004 Freedom in the World report book, presenting results based on 2003 which was the year where the UNMIL was implemented, Liberia was ranked as not free with political rights and civil rights both lying on a 6 each (Piano and Puddington, 2004). In the 2017 Freedom in the World report, presenting results based on 2016, Liberia is ranked as partly free with political rights scoring 3 and civil liberties 4 (Puddington and Roylance, 2017), which indicates progress made in the country during the UNMIL.
In the latest Freedom in the World report published in 2020, presenting results based on 2019, Liberia is ranked as partly free with a score of 60, and political rights 27 and civil liberties 33. Since the end of the civil war in 2003 Liberia has experienced a process of peacebuilding and stability that has lasted over a decade (Freedom House, 2021b). Freedom House maintains that progress has been achieved in many areas, such as improving the government capacity, reintroducing and establishing the rule of law, protecting and promoting political rights and civil liberties in the country. However, although progress has been made, there are still serious problems with high corruption levels in the country, gender-based violence where women suffer, and discrimination against the LGBTQ community (Freedom House, 2021b).
There are multiple areas that Freedom House identifies as weak in Liberia highlighted in their Freedom in the World report made in 2020, presenting trends from 2019 (Freedom House, 2021b). First, official corruption is widespread and although institutions in the country are concerned about it
38(61)
and dedicated to preventing it, they lack the resources necessary to do so. The outcome is therefore that corruption remains widespread and faces little resistance. Unfortunately, the police force falls into the category of corrupt institutions, and although the security in Liberia has improved since the end of the war in 2003, the police still lack financial means to be able to protect the people in Liberia (Freedom House, 2021b). Second, although the Liberian constitution promotes the freedom of speech and freedom of press, the media in Liberia is not free and independent. Journalists have witnessed that they have received threats from government officials, attacks on media stations have occurred as well as theft of media equipment. In addition to that, media licenses have been suspended on vague grounds and many point to the government basing the suspensions on the media stations being too critical (Freedom House, 2021b). Third, the right to freedom of assembly has declined mainly due to governmental control and blocking of social media in relation to mass-meetings in order to block the information flow, basing their choice on the meetings being a “security issue” (Freedom House, 2021b). Fourth, there is a decrease in the independence of the judiciary. The Liberian constitution declares an independent judiciary, but in reality, it is hampered by the widespread corruption, political involvement, and lack of financing. Personnel within the judiciary has been removed because of the government not agreeing with court outcomes, and old personnel has been replaced by people chosen by the top politicians. In addition to this, arbitrary arrests occurred, as well as bribes to judges to prosecute criminals to their advantage or disadvantage. Individuals also risk spending more time in pretrial detention for crimes committed than the actual jail time would have been because the system works so badly and slow, and the conditions in the prisons are very bad (Freedom House, 2021b). Fifth, there is a stigmatization of minority groups in Liberia including ethnic groups and Muslims, meaning these groups are “outsiders”. The LGBT community are extremely discriminated and are in some cases exposed to violence, and having
39(61)
relationships with people of the same sex can result in prison. In the political sphere it is clear that no one supports same-sex relationships and marriage (Freedom House, 2021b).
Last but not least, when it comes to personal autonomy and individual rights Liberia still has work to do. There are still ongoing conflicts regarding land rights, especially since the displacement of so many Liberian citizens during the civil war. There are also conflicts regarding foreign access to land in Liberia for the access to mines, timber and palm oil. Women are suffering from disadvantages in the legislation regarding access to land, preventing them from gaining access to it which builds on to the gender-based inequalities in the country (Freedom House, 2021b). By law, men and women enjoy the same rights, but in practice that is not the case. Women are victims of violence and sexual abuse, children as well, which is a widespread problem in Liberia. As recently as in 2017 the Senate proposed that rape would be a bailable crime, which was voted through. However, that decision caused protests amongst women and women's rights activists, and as of 2019 it is still a non-bailable crime. In 2019, the Domestic Violence Act was signed into law, which mandates harder punishments for perpetrators convicted of domestic violence. However, the law does not include regulation regarding female genital mutilation which is a widespread problem in the country (Freedom House, 2021b).
5.4.4 Transparency International Transparency International is an international independent, non-political organization working with counteracting corruption. The goal is to improve lives for people all over the world by exposing systems and networks of corruption, and through holding the responsible accountable for the ongoing corruption (Transparency International, 2021a). Transparency means having publicly open flows of information, both in formal and informal sectors. It means everyone should be able to find information about who, what, how,
40(61)
where, and how much. The public life requires full transparency in order for corruption to stop, which is what Transparency International strongly promotes and aims for (Transparency International, 2021a).
Transparency International defines corruption as “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain”, and suggests that corruption undermines democracy, exploits trust to benefit certain individuals, prevents economic development which leads to aggravated inequalities and poverty (Transparency International, 2021b). There are many ways corruption can be performed, for instance public officials insist on getting money in return for public services, or public officials exploiting public money in favour for family, friends, or others in their view of meaningful relationships. Corruption is not limited to a certain arena or a certain job, it can occur anywhere- in the government, in the private sector, in the media, in institutions, and so on- and by anyone (Transparency International, 2021b). Corruption is often hidden and happens in the shadows of life, which is why it is hard to detect. Corruption commonly affects people's political freedom and the rule of law negatively, it destroys public trust in the government and chances of a sustainable future and healthy environment, as well as it hinders individuals' possibility to economically grow (Transparency International, 2021b). Transparency International measures perceptions of corruption in around 180 countries and territories based on experts and business people presenting their experiences of corruption in the public sector, which then is presented as the CPI (Corruption Perception Index). The ranking of countries runs from 0 which is the worst ranking meaning extremely corrupt, to 100 which is the best meaning no corruption at all (Transparency International, 2021c).
In 2016, by the end of the UNMIL, Liberia was ranked as the 90th country on the list out of 176 countries in the list at that time, and received 37 as a score which indicates high levels of corruption, which also shows a small drop in ranking since the year before (Transparency International, 2021d). In
41(61)
the latest ranking, in 2020, Liberia has dropped in ranking from 90 all the way down to 137 out of 180 countries in the list at that time, with a score of 28 which is extremely low and indicates even higher levels of corruption compared to the year when UNMIL was finished (Transparency International, 2021e).
5.4.5 Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an independent, non-political international organization that investigates and informs the international community about abuses occurring around the world (Human Rights Watch, 2021a). The goal of the organization is to protect all citizens on the globe who are at risk of abuse, aiming their advocacy towards governments, businesses, organizations, and armed groups within countries to achieve changes in legislation and policies. One part of the work of HRW is producing and presenting annual reports, covering disturbing events and abuse in over 100 countries in order to spread awareness and aims to bring justice to victims of abuse and hold abusers accountable for their actions (Human Rights Watch, 2021a). Although Liberia is not presented in the HRW World reports neither in the 2003 report, 2016 report nor the latest published in 2021, other articles have been published highlighting trends in Liberia.
The present issue in Liberia brought up by HRW is the recommended creation of a war crimes court in Liberia, presented by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission more than a decade ago (Keppler, 2021). Instead, it is clear that the Liberian government has not achieved much success with that commitment, although the justice minister Frank Musa of Liberia claimed otherwise during the United Nations Human Rights Council in March 2021. Musa stated that Liberia is actively involved in conversations regarding accountability for war crimes, both regional and national (Keppler, 2021). However, no meetings or conversations regarding this have been reported since 2019, and the Liberian government was supposed to present a
42(61)
report to the United Nations Human Committee in July 2020 regarding the planned establishment of a war crimes court to reach a process of holding war crimes offenders accountable (Human Rights Watch, 2021b). However, no report regarding that has been presented by the Liberian government so far. and there have been reports of an increasing number of harassment and threats targeting witnesses of war crimes as well as activists (Human Rights Watch, 2021b). According to international law, states are obligated to prosecute people who have committed serious crimes such as war crimes (Keppler, 2021). By doing so, the government provides justice to the victims at the same time as they are fighting impunity. The people of Liberia have shown their full support for a creation of a war crimes court, which is also a reason for the government to actually realize it. Liberia should, with the help of the UN, create a war crimes court in accordance with international standards to provide the justice needed for victims (Keppler, 2021), and provide protection for activists and war crimes witnesses (Human Rights Watch, 2021b).
Amnesty International is a politically independent international organization, campaigning for human rights and accountability all around the world (Amnesty International, 2021a). Some of the subjects that Amnesty International is working with are armed conflicts, climate change, international justice, freedom of expression, fighting death penalties and torture (Amnesty International, 2021b). Amnesty International publishes news regarding all subjects, as well as an annual report that includes around 150 countries, in which the status of human rights in each country is presented (Amnesty International, 2021c). Amnesty International, like HRW, does not present the situation in Liberia in any of their annual reports, however, they have published a number of articles about Liberia. The most recent article highlights the fact that the Liberian government is not focusing enough on accountability in relation to war crimes conducted during the over
43(61)
a decade long civil war. In order to follow international standards of human rights, it should be in the Liberian government's interest to place much more focus on such issues (Dufka, 2018).
44(61)
6 Analysis Based on the findings, this chapter evaluates if there is peace in Liberia today according to Galtung's theory of peace and violence. This will be done by using Johan Galtung's definition of peace and violence, namely direct violence, structural violence and cultural violence and see if there is negative or positive peace in the country. Starting with evaluating if there is negative peace by using the presented information collected from the Global Peace Index, and then move on to the question if and to what extent there is positive peace in Liberia based on the data provided by the Human Development Index, Freedom House, Transparency International, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.
6.1 Following Galtung’s Definition, is there Negative Peace in Liberia?
6.1.1 Absence of Violence The GPI presents in its most recent report from 2020 that Liberia has improved its peacefulness since the end of the UNMIL in 2016, and that Liberia is considered having a high level of peacefulness. There are still high levels of perceived criminality, high levels of violent crimes and easy access to weapons just to mention a few of the categories that in the 2020 GPI report was considered still an issue. According to Galtung, negative peace is synonymous to absence of direct violence. Direct violence means violence that hurts and/or kills people, as well as verbal violence and abuse performed by one or several executors upon one or several victims (Galtung, 1969). However, absence of direct violence only leaves room for tension between groups and individuals, which may lead to new conflicts. According to the GPI there are still high levels of tension in certain areas as explained above, but there is no direct violence towards the citizens by the state or between citizens by different groups or communities. Based on the information
45(61)
presented by the GPI, and Galtung's definition of negative peace, it is possible to reach the conclusion that Liberia has reached their goal of establishing negative peace.
6.2 Following Galtung’s Definition, is there Positive Peace in Liberia? Positive peace is, according to Galtung, the absence of direct, structural and cultural violence. In the section above, negative peace is discussed which covers direct violence, and in this section structural and cultural violence will be analyzed. In countries and societies experiencing positive peace, people have the ability to grow into and explore their full potential, live together in harmony, cooperate with each other and have processed and moved past traumatic experiences that may have occurred (see e.g., Galtung 1996; Galtung and Fisher, 2013). The findings show that Liberia is experiencing multiple issues related to structural and cultural violence, and this section analyzes how Liberia is experiencing the two types of violence based on the findings presented above.
6.2.1 Structural Violence The findings drawn from the HDI in 2020 show that the level of human development in Liberia is unstable, and Liberia is ranked as the 175th worst country out of 189 (United Nations Development Programme, 2020). Since the HDI ranks the countries based on access to resources, knowledge, having long and healthy lives, possibilities to explore creativeness, and gross national income per capita, and Liberia is ranked as far down as it is in 2020, it is obvious that the Liberian citizens do not have access to living life to their fullest potential. However, the findings present a small increase in the HDI rank for Liberia compared to 2016 when the UNMIL was finished, but with emphasis on small. The difference between the situation in 2016 when the UNMIL was finished compared to the information presented in 2020
46(61)
shows that not much progress has been made. These findings can be placed under Galtung’s category of structural violence, since structural violence is explained as indirect violence, which means it is not caused by one specific person upon another, it is rather embedded in a system that discriminates against the rights of individuals being able to develop into their full potential.
A democratic political system where citizens experience political freedom and civil rights, and a government that is accountable for its citizens is the key to a free and thriving country according to the Freedom House. Liberia has, as presented in the findings chapter, experienced progress since 2003, the end of the civil war, until 2016 when the UNMIL was finished. However, the 2020 Freedom in the World Report informs the reader that Liberia is experiencing serious problems in multiple areas that fall into the category of both structural and cultural violence. Freedom House reports high levels of widespread corruption in Liberia, which includes governmental institutions that are founded to protect the rights of civilians such as the police and judiciary. The media in the country are not free and independent and journalists have been victims of harassment and attacks, and freedom on social media has also decreased because of wider government control in order to block information flows. These are undeniable indicators of structural violence in terms of exploitation, oppression and discrimination.
Transparency International claims that corruption leads to aggravated inequalities and poverty, which is why transparent processes in both the public and private sector are extremely important. Corruption negatively affects people's political freedoms and the rule of law, individuals’ economic development, as well as individual possibilities over all since it depends on each person or family's economic situation, and also sometimes on cultural factors such as religious beliefs, ideologies, languages or such. Based on the results presented by Transparency International in 2020, the corruption level has increased drastically in Liberia since UNMIL handed over all the
47(61)
security related responsibilities to the Liberian authorities in 2016. Increasing corruption means increasing levels of economic inequalities and major overall inequalities in individuals' possibilities to develop which goes hand in hand with Galtung's definition of structural violence because corruption is direct exploitation of individuals, and causes economic discrimination and oppression and the government allows it to occur and increase.
The information collected through HRW and Amnesty International collectively highlights the absence of accountability for past war crimes, and the Liberian government's apparent unwillingness to take responsibility and create a war crimes court and press charges against perpetrators that have committed war crimes. According to international standards of human rights, the Liberian government must hold perpetrators of war crimes accountable, and it should lay in the Liberian government's interest to fight impunity and bring justice to victims. However, despite international recommendations, this does not seem to be the case in Liberia. This category therefore also falls into Galtung's definition of structural violence since it discriminates against victims of serious crimes, it discriminates against people actively promoting impunity, it causes oppression since victims and witnesses of war crimes are harassed and threatened, and it causes great suffering for Liberian citizens. The Liberian government has gotten the Liberian citizens' support for a war crimes court, and yet they ignore it and prevent this crucial process from happening. In order to reach positive peace, Galtung emphasizes the importance of a country or community to collectively process past experiences in order for future conflicts to be avoided, which is something the Liberian government is failing tremendously in providing for its citizens.
6.2.2 Cultural Violence The corruption presented by both Transparency International and Freedom House is not only categorized as structural violence, but as cultural violence as well because religion, ideology, language, and such may affect how much
48(61)
corruption one perceives, individuals may become victims of corruption to a larger extent based on cultural factors. In addition to corruption as an indicator of cultural violence, Freedom House presents information showing that minority groups, such as ethnic groups and religious groups, are exposed to discrimination and violence based on the fact that they belong to different religions and ethnicities which increases the inequalities in the country. Women are also exposed to inequalities and high rates of gender-based abuse such as sexual violence and widespread genital mutilation. These are clear indicators of both cultural violence and structural violence. Increasing corruption means increasing levels of economic inequalities and major overall inequalities in individuals' possibilities to develop which goes hand in hand with Galtung's definition of structural and cultural violence.
6.3 Summary of Analysis As the findings have shown, the UN was pushing towards negative peace and achieved it, and the mission also functioned as a system to support the Liberian government in their efforts to establish peace and stability. UNMIL has given Liberia a lot of tools to keep progressing in their peace process, but Liberia has not done that to the extent that they could have.
To answer the second research question “How is the UNMIL perceived by secondary sources?”, it is safe to say that secondary sources provide information that note a positive trend since the beginning of the UNMIL in 2003. The direct violence in Liberia has decreased tremendously, and a democratic election has successfully been held. However, the sources used in this study have also presented information that describes challenges the country has to keep working on. The biggest challenges are high levels of corruption, gender-based violence, discrimination and media restrictions.
The third research question, “How could peace in Liberia be evaluated today, five years after the UN peacekeeping mission handed over the security
49(61)
related responsibilities to Liberian authorities?” is answered by using Galtung's definition of peace and violence. Based on the analysis made on the information gathered from the GPI, HDI, Freedom House, Transparency International, HRW and Amnesty International it is possible to conclude that Liberia has reached negative peace, but Liberia has a lot of progress to make in order to reach positive peace.
50(61)
7 Conclusion As the study shows, the goals of the mission set by the UN were aiming towards establishing negative peace. Negative peace was achieved as presented by the UN themselves as well as data collected from the GPI, which makes the UNMIL a successful mission in relation to the goals set for the mission. According to Johan Galtung's definition of peace and violence, Liberia has achieved negative peace. The UN makes it clear that the mission in Liberia was there to stabilize the security situation, and to support the Liberian government in the process of reaching peace. The objective of the UNMIL can be interpreted as short-term solutions, and the mission never had the objectives to reach positive peace, although they encouraged Liberia to keep striving for higher levels of structural and cultural peace beyond absence of violence. Furthermore, the findings presented show that Liberia has not reached positive peace according to the definition presented by Galtung. There are still deep issues connected to both structural and cultural violence, and some of the issues have even increased since the UNMIL was finished.
The question that lingers after this investigation is if UN peacekeeping missions could, or even should, ever achieve anything more advanced than negative peace. If one takes a closer look, many members of the UN engaged in peacekeeping missions have not fulfilled all requirements Galtung ascribed to positive peace in their own countries and communities either, which makes it questionable if the UN has what it takes to push for positive peace to be achieved in other countries and communities.
Furthermore, should the international community aim to establish positive peace in other countries and communities, or is the process of achieving positive peace something that the host county has to do themselves? Although the UN does not use the conceptualization of positive and negative peace, they presented goals aiming for negative peace, but encouraged the
51(61)
Liberian government to go forward towards positive peace. As the UN makes clear in their definition of peacekeeping outlined in the introduction, the will to achieve peace must primarily be of interest for the host state where there is conflict. Peacekeeping will aim to provide a support system in the host country's journey to achieving peace. Although positive peace should be the ultimate goal, maybe it is unrealistic to aim that high and then be disappointed when that is not reached. UNMIL actually achieved something and reached its goals, compared to other UN peacekeeping missions that have not achieved that.
Finally, is it even possible to achieve positive peace? I doubt it is possible to fully achieve it. Should that be our goal? I believe it is our duty to always have positive peace as an end goal, for the international community as a whole. Countries all over the world are, to different degrees, striving towards positive peace. Although positive peace may never be reached, one could instead explore countries on a negative-to-positive-peace continuum, aiming to strive towards the positive side and then evaluate countries and international efforts based on that continuum.
Further research of the outcomes of UN peacekeeping missions are needed to provide a better understanding of the utility of the missions. When peacekeeping missions have been deemed successful it is important to evaluate the situation in the country a few years post conflict. The reason is to understand if the measures taken by the UN are sufficient for the country to establish peace. If UN peacekeeping provides short term solutions that eventually result in countries falling back into conflict, or if they provide a foundation for sustainable peace, and to see what factors may cause successes or failures. Future research of UN peacekeeping missions and evaluations of them a number of years after UN peacekeeping missions have been declared finished is therefore necessary to understand if the goals set by
52(61)
the UN peacekeeping missions are actually providing a foundation for lasting peace for conflict affected countries and territories.
53(61)
8 References
Amnesty International. 2021a. Who We Are. Available at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/who-we-are/ Accessed 8 May 2021. Amnesty International. 2021b. What We Do. Available at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/ Accessed 8 May 2021. Amnesty International. 2021c. Countries. Available at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/ Accessed 8 May 2021. Aning, K. and Edu-Afful, F. 2013. Unintended Impacts and the Gendered Consequences of Peacekeeping Economies in Liberia. International Peacekeeping, 20(1), pp.17-32. Bargués-Pedreny, P. and Martin de Almagro, M., 2019. Prevention From Afar: Gendering Resilience and Sustaining Hope in Post-UNMIL Liberia. Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 14(3), pp.327-348. Beardsley, K., Gleditsch, K. S. 2015. Peacekeeping as Conflict Containment. International Studies Review, 17(1), March 2015, 67–89. Beber, B., Gilligan, M., Guardado, J. and Karim, S., 2016. Peacekeeping, Compliance with International Norms, and Transactional Sex in Monrovia, Liberia. International Organization, 71(1), pp.1-30. Berdal, M. and Ucko, D., 2015. The Use of Force in UN Peacekeeping Operations. The RUSI Journal, 160(1), pp.6-12. Blakemore, S., Freedman, R. and Lemay-Hébert, N., 2019. Child safeguarding in a peacekeeping context: lessons from Liberia. Development in Practice, 29(6), pp.735-747. Bryman, A. (2016). Social Research Methods. 5th ed., Oxford: OUP. Bueno de Mesquita, B, Downs, GW., 2006. Intervention and democracy. International Organization 60(3): 627 Cheng-Hopkins, J., 2010. UN Peacebuilding: an Orientation. United Nations. Available at: https://www.un.org/peacebuilding/sites/www.un.org.peacebuilding/file s/documents/peacebuilding_orientation.pdf Accessed 18 April 2021. Collinge, D., 2019. The Missing Link. Journal of International Peacekeeping, 23(1-2), pp.82-104.
54(61)
Creswell, J.W., & Creswell, J. (2018). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches. 5th ed., Los Angeles: SAGE. da Costa, D. and Karlsrud, J., 2013. ‘Bending the Rules’: The Space between HQ Policy and Local Action in UN Civilian Peacekeeping. Journal of International Peacekeeping, 17(3-4), pp.293-312. Dennis, P. (2006). A Brief History of Liberia. New York: The International Center for Transnational Justice. Doyle, M.W., & Sambanis, N., 2006. Making war and building peace: United Nations peace operations. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J. Dufka, C., 2018. Liberia: 76 Groups Seek Justice for War Crimes. Available at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/07/liberia-76-groups- seek-justice-for-war-crimes/ Accessed 8 May 2021. Firchow, P. and Ginty, R., 2017. Measuring Peace: Comparability, Commensurability, and Complementarity Using Bottom-Up Indicators. International Studies Review, 19(1), pp.6-27. Freedom House. 2021a. About Us. Available at: https://freedomhouse.org/about-us Accessed 30 April 2021. Freedom House. 2021b. Liberia: Freedom in the World 2020 Country Report | Freedom House. Available at: https://freedomhouse.org/country/liberia/freedom-world/2020 Accessed 30 April 2021. Freedom House. 2021c. Freedom in the World. Available at: https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world Accessed 30 April 2021. Galtung, J., 1964. An Editorial. Journal of Peace Research, 1(1), pp.1-4. Galtung, J., 1969. Violence, Peace, and Peace Research. Journal of Peace Research, 6(3), pp.167-191. Galtung, J., 1985. Twenty-Five Years of Peace Research: Ten Challenges and Some Responses. Journal of Peace Research, 22(2), pp.141-158. Galtung, J., 1996. Peace By Peaceful Means: Peace And Conflict, Development And Civilization. London: SAGE. Galtung, J., and Fischer, D., 2013. Johan Galtung: Pioneer Of Peace Research. Dordrecht: Springer.
55(61)
Gell, A. and H. Sandler Fellow, L., 2012. “Even a ‘Big Man’ Must Face Justice”. Lessons from the Trial of Charles Taylor. Human Rights Watch. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/report/2012/07/25/even-big- man-must-face-justice/lessons-trial-charles-taylor Accessed 19 May 2021. George, A.L. & Bennett, A. (2005). Case studies and theory development in the social sciences. London: MIT. Haass, F. and Ansorg, N., 2018. Better peacekeepers, better protection? Troop quality of United Nations peace operations and violence against civilians. Journal of Peace Research, 55(6), pp.742-758. Harris, D., 1999. From ‘warlord’ to ‘democratic’ president: how Charles Taylor won the 1997 Liberian elections. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 37(3), pp.431-455. Hegre, H., Hultman, L., and Nygård, H.M., 2019. Evaluating the Conflict- Reducing Effect of UN Peacekeeping Operations. The Journal of Politics. 81(1), 215-232. Howard, L. and Dayal, A., 2017. The Use of Force in UN Peacekeeping. International Organization, 72(1), pp.71-103. Hultman, L., Kathman, J., & Shannon, M., 2013. United Nations Peacekeeping and Civilian Protection in Civil War. American Journal of Political Science, 57(4), 875-891. Hultman, L., Kathman, J., & Shannon, M., 2014. Beyond Keeping Peace: United Nations Effectiveness in the Midst of Fighting. The American Political Science Review, 108(4), 737- 753. Human Development Reports 2021. About Human Development. Available at: http://hdr.undp.org/en/humandev Accessed 3 May 2021. Human Rights Watch. 2021a. About Us. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/about/about-us Accessed 4 May 2021. Human Rights Watch. 2021b. Joint Statement for the Adoption of the outcome of the Universal Periodic Review of Liberia. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/03/17/joint-statement-adoption- outcome-universal-periodic-review-liberia Accessed 4 May 2021. Hunt C.T., 2017. All necessary means to what ends? the unintended consequences of the ‘robust turn’ in UN peace operations. International Peacekeeping, 24(1), 108-131. Ikomi, E. O., (2007). Implementation of Abuja II Accord and Post-Conflict Security in Liberia. MA Thesis, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA.
56(61)
Institute for Economics & Peace, 2020. Global Peace Index 2020: Measuring Peace in a Complex World. Sydney. Available at: http://visionofhumanity.org/reports Accessed 22 April 2021. Jahan, S., 2016. Human development report 2016. New York: United Nations Development Programme. Available at: http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/2016_human_development_repor t.pdf Johnston, M. (2017). Secondary Data Analysis: A Method of which the Time Has Come. Qualitative And Quantitative Methods In Libraries, 3(3), pp.619-626. Karim, S., 2016. Reevaluating Peacekeeping Effectiveness: Does Gender Neutrality Inhibit Progress?. International Interactions, 43(5), pp.822- 847. Karim, S., 2020. The Legacy of Peacekeeping on the Liberian Security Sector. International Peacekeeping, 27(1), pp.58-64. Kenkel, K. and Foley, C., 2021. Responding to the crisis in United Nations peace operations. Contemporary Security Policy, 42(2), pp.189-196. Keppler, E., 2021. Liberia Misleads on Justice at UN Rights Review. Human Rights Watch. Available at: https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/03/17/liberia-misleads-justice-un- rights-review Accessed 4 May 2021. Khalfan, O., 2020. International Peacekeeping and Stabilization Cases: Liberia, Mozambique, and Rwanda. International Journal of Education Humanities and Social Science, 3(4) pp.224-237. Klugman, J., 2009. Overcoming barriers. New York: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Available at: http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/269/hdr_2009_en_comple te.pdf Leonardsson, H. and Rudd, G., 2015. The ‘local turn’ in peacebuilding: a literature review of effective and emancipatory local peacebuilding. Third World Quarterly, 36(5), pp.825-839. Lipson, M., 2007. Peacekeeping: Organized Hypocrisy?. European Journal of International Relations, 13(1), pp.5-34. Mac Ginty, R., 2014. Everyday peace: Bottom-up and local agency in conflict-affected societies. Security Dialogue, 45(6), pp.548-564. Maschietto, R., 2019. Integrating subjectivities of power and violence in peacebuilding analysis. Third World Quarterly, 41(3), pp.379–396.
57(61)
Mvukiyehe, E., 2017. Promoting Political Participation in War-torn Countries. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 62(8), pp.1686-1726. Neudorfer, K., 2015. Sexual exploitation and abuse in UN peacekeeping. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books. Nilsson, D., 2009. Crafting a secure peace. Uppsala, Sweden: Dept. of Peace and Conflict Resolution, Uppsala University. Okada, Y., 2020. Deprivation or Circumvention of the UN’s Immunity. Journal of International Peacekeeping, 23(3-4), pp.121-148. Okada, Y. and White, N., 2020. Overcoming the Hurdles to Accountability in UN Peacekeeping. Journal of International Peacekeeping, 23(3-4), pp.117-120. Olcay, R. and Bayram, M., 2020. A Comparative Assessment of UNMIL- Liberia and UNOSOM II-Somalia Peacekeeping Operations. The Journal of Diplomatic Research, vol 2(2). Puddington, A and Piano, A., 2004. Freedom in the world 2004. New York: Freedom House. Available at: https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/202002/Freedom_in_the_W orld_2004_complete_book.pdf Puddington, A. and Roylance, T., 2017. Populists and Autocrats: The Dual Threat to Global Democracy. Freedom in the World 2017. Available at: https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/FH_FIW_2017_Report_Fin al.pdf Richmond, O., 2011. A post-liberal peace. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon [England]: Routledge. Sambanis, N., 2008. Short- and Long-Term Effects of United Nations Peace Operations. The World Bank Economic Review, 22(1), pp.9-32. Steinert, J. and Grimm, S., 2014. Too good to be true? United Nations peacebuilding and the democratization of war-torn states. Conflict Management and Peace Science, 32(5), pp.513-535. Söderström, J., Åkebo, M. and Jarstad, A., 2020. Friends, Fellows, and Foes: A New Framework for Studying Relational Peace. International Studies Review. Transparency International., 2021a. About. Available at: https://www.transparency.org/en/about Accessed 3 May 2021.
58(61)
Transparency International., 2021b. What is corruption?. Available at: https://www.transparency.org/en/what-is-corruption Accessed 3 May 2021. Transparency International., 2021c. CPI 2020: Global highlights - News. Available at: https://www.transparency.org/en/news/cpi-2020-global- highlights Accessed 7 May 2021. Transparency International., 2021d. Corruption Perceptions Index 2016 for Liberia. Available at: https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2016/index/lbr Accessed 8 May 2021. Transparency International., 2021e. Corruption Perceptions Index 2020 for Liberia. Available at: https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2020/index/lbr Accessed 8 May 2021. Tull, D.M., 2018. The Limits and Unintended Consequences of UN Peace Enforcement: The Force Intervention Brigade in the DR Congo. International Peacekeeping. 25(2). 167- 190. United Nations, 2003. United Nations Security Council Resolution 1509, S/RES/1509 (19 September 2003). Available at: https://undocs.org/S/RES/1509(2003) United Nations Development Programme., 2020. HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2020. New York: UNITED NATIONS. Available at: http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/hdr2020.pdf United Nations General Assembly, 1992. An Agenda for Peace Preventive Diplomacy, Peacemaking and Peacekeeping: Report of the Secretary General Pursuant to the Statement Adopted by the Summit Meeting of the Security Council on 31 January 1992, A/47/277-S/24111 (17 June 1992). Available at: https://www.un.org/ruleoflaw/files/A_47_277.pdf United Nations Peacekeeping. 2021a. Our history. Available at: https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/our-history Accessed 6 April 2021. United Nations Peacekeeping., 2021b. UN Peacekeeping: 70 Years of Service & Sacrifice. Available at: https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/un- peacekeeping-70-years-of-service-sacrifice Accessed 6 April 2021. United Nations Peacekeeping. 2021c. UNMIL. Available at: https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/mission/unmil Accessed 11 May 2021. United Nations Peacekeeping. 2021d. What is peacekeeping? Available at: https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/what-is-peacekeeping Accessed 20 April 2021.
59(61)
United Nations Peacekeeping. 2021e. Principles of peacekeeping. Available at: https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/principles-of-peacekeeping Accessed 20 April 2021. United Nations Peacekeeping. 2021f. What we do. Available at: https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/what-we-do Accessed 20 April 2021. United Nations Peacekeeping. 2021g. UNMIL Facts. Available at: https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/unmil-facts Accessed 26 April 2021. UNMIL. 2021a. Background. Available at: https://unmil.unmissions.org/background Accessed 17 May 2021. UNMIL. 2021b. Military. Available at: https://unmil.unmissions.org/military-0 Accessed 21 April 2021. United Nations Security Council, 2018. Final progress report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Mission in Liberia. S/2018/344. Available at: https://undocs.org/S/2018/344 Vision of Humanity. 2021. Global indexes - Vision of Humanity. Available at: https://www.visionofhumanity.org/maps/#/ Accessed 26 April 2021.
60(61)