I. Can the UN Keep Peace?
Whats the UN’s job in the Congo? _______:
1. ________ peace deal 2. __________ rebel forces 3.__________ police force
4. __________ of national army
How many UN Peacekeepers?___________
1964: Cyprus 1973: Golan Heights 1980 Lebanon
Chapter 7 Mandate:________________________________________________________
UN’s Failures: 1.)______________ 2.)_________________
UN’s successes: 1.)_____________ 2.)________________
Kwanja Massacre: machetes, guns, spears
Susan Rice- Obama’s _______________ to the UN
Peacekeeping in Crisis:
The UN doesn’t have its own _________, it has to ask for _____________.
Human Rights Watch is a __________ who brings their reports to the UN’s Security Council to pass ________________.
UN troops from North America and Europe in the Congo- _______%
Who contributes the most $ to the UN?___________
Why is the UN Struggling?
II. Severine Autesserre: To solve mass violence, look to locals
Conflict peacebuilding four destabilized crisis humanitarian core local warlords elections displacements minerals trafficking sexual peace culture top-down micro-level |
I want to speak about a forgotten
__________. It's a conflict that rarely hits the headlines. It happens right
here, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 0:23 Now, most people outside of
Africa don't know much about the war in Congo, so let me give you a couple of
key facts. The Congolese conflict is the deadliest conflict since World War II.
It has caused almost ______million deaths. It has most of Central Africa for
the past 18 years. It is the largest ongoing humanitarian __________ in the
world.
0:49 That's why I first went to
Congo in 2001. I was a young _____________aid worker, and I met this woman who
was my age. She was called Isabelle. Local militias had attacked Isabelle's
village. They had killed many men, raped many women…
1:27 Well, it's because of
people like Isabelle and her husband that I have devoted my career to studying
this war that we know so little about. 1:37 Although there is one story about
Congo that you may have heard. It's a story about ________and rape. Policy
statements and media reports both usually focus on a primary cause of violence
in Congo -- the illegal exploitation and _________of natural resources -- and
on a main consequence -- _________abuse of women and girls as a weapon of war.
2:06 So, not that these two issues
aren't important and tragic. They are. But today I want to tell you a different
story. I want to tell you a story that emphasizes a ______cause of the ongoing
conflict. Violence in Congo is in large part driven by_______ bottom-up conflicts
that international peace efforts have failed to help address. 2:36 The story
starts from the fact that not only is Congo notable for being the world's worst
ongoing humanitarian crisis, but it is also home to some of the largest
international ______________ efforts in the world. Congo hosts the largest and
most expensive United Nations peacekeeping mission in the world. It was also
the site of the first European-led peacekeeping mission, and for its first
cases ever, the International Criminal Court chose to prosecute Congolese________.
In 2006, when Congo held the first free national ____________ in its history,
many observers thought that an end to violence in the region had finally come.
The international community lauded the successful organization of these
elections as finally an example of successful international intervention in a
failed state.
3:40 But the eastern provinces have
continued to face massive population ___________ and horrific human rights
violations. Shortly before I went back there last summer, there was a horrible __________in
the province of South Kivu. Thirty-three people were killed. They were mostly
women and children, and many of them were hacked to death. During the past
eight years, fighting in the eastern provinces has regularly reignited
full-scale civil and international war. So basically, every time we feel that
we are on the brink of______, the conflict explodes again.
4:21 Why? Why have the massive
international efforts failed to help Congo achieve lasting peace and security?
Well, my answer to this question revolves around two central observations.
First, one of the main reasons for the continuation of violence in Congo is
fundamentally ___________…5:17 The second central observation is that
international peace efforts have failed to help address local conflicts because
of the presence of a dominant peacebuilding ________. So what I mean is that
Western and African diplomats, United Nations peacekeepers, donors, the staff
of most nongovernmental organizations that work with the resolution of
conflict, they all share a specific way of seeing the world. And I was one of
these people, and I shared this culture, so I know all too well how powerful it
is. Throughout the world, and throughout conflict zones, this common culture
shapes the intervener's understanding of the causes of violence as something
that is primarily located in the national and international spheres. It shapes
our understanding of the path toward peace as something again that _________intervention
to address national and international tensions. And it shapes our understanding
of the roles of foreign actors as engaging in national and international peace
processes. Even more importantly, this common culture enables international
peacebuilders to ignore the _____________ tensions that often jeopardize the
macro-level settlements.
6:51 So for instance, in Congo,
because of how they are socialized and trained, United Nations officials,
donors, diplomats, the staff of most nongovernmental organizations, they interpret
continued fighting and massacres as a top-down problem… In addition, these
international peacebuilders view local conflicts as simply the result of
national and international tensions, insufficient state authority, and what
they call the Congolese people's so-called inherent penchant for violence.
7:46 The dominant culture also
constructs intervention at the national and international levels as the only
natural and legitimate task for United Nations staffers and diplomats. And it
elevates the organization of general elections, which is now a sort of
cure-all, as the most crucial state reconstruction mechanism over more
effective state-building approaches. And that happens not only in Congo but
also in many other conflict zones.
8:20 But let's dig deeper..10:34 So
we can wonder why in these circumstances the international peacebuilders have
failed to help implement local peacebuilding programs. And the answer is that
international interveners deem the resolution of grassroots conflict an
unimportant, unfamiliar, and illegitimate task. The very idea of becoming
involved at the local level clashes fundamentally with existing cultural norms,
and it threatens key organizational interests. For instance, the very identity
of the United Nations as this macro-level diplomatic organization would be
upended if it were to refocus on local conflicts. And the result is that
neither the internal resistance to the dominant ways of working nor the
external shocks have managed to convince international actors that they should
reevaluate their understanding of violence and intervention. And so far, there
have been only very few exceptions. There have been exceptions, but only very
few exceptions, to this broad pattern.
11:57 So to wrap up, the story I
just told you is a story about how a dominant peacebuilding culture shapes the
intervener's understanding of what the causes of violence are, how peace is
made, and what interventions should accomplish. These understandings enable
international peacebuilders to ignore the micro-level foundations that are so
necessary for sustainable peace. The resulting inattention to local conflicts
leads to inadequate peacebuilding in the short term and potential war
resumption in the long term. And what's fascinating is that this analysis helps
us to better understand many cases of lasting conflict and international
intervention failures, in Africa and elsewhere. Local conflicts fuel violence
in most war and post-war environments, from Afghanistan to Sudan to
Timor-Leste, and in the rare cases where there have been comprehensive,
bottom-up peacebuilding initiatives, these attempts have been successful at
making peace sustainable. One of the best examples is the contrast between the
relatively peaceful situation in Somaliland, which benefited from sustained
grassroots peacebuilding initiatives, and the violence prevalent in the rest of
Somalia, where peacebuilding has been mostly top-down. And there are several
other cases in which local, grassroots conflict resolution has made a crucial
difference.
13:40 So if we want international
peacebuilding to work, in addition to any top-down intervention, conflicts must
be resolved from the bottom up. And again, it's not that national and
international tensions don't matter. They do. And it's not that national and
international peacebuilding isn't necessary. It is. Instead, it is that both
macro-level and micro-level peacebuilding are needed to make peace sustainable,
and local nongovernmental organizations, local authorities and civil society
representatives should be the main actors in the bottom-up process…14:46 As for
Congo, what can be done? After two decades of conflict and the deaths of
millions, it's clear that we need to change our approach…15:42 So these will
not be magic wands, but because they take into account deeply rooted causes of
the violence, they could definitely be game-changers. 15:53 Thank you.
Questions:
1. The Congo has the biggest and
most expensive peacekeeping mission in the world so why is peace so difficult
to maintain?
2. What are the main sources of
violence in the Congo?
3. How does the dominant culture of
the NGOs and peacekeepers shape their perspective on the causes of violence in
the Congo? How does this affect peace building?
4. Explain the difference between
top down and bottom-up approach to peacebuilding.
