International Relations Commons^™

Pacem In Terris: Historical Context & The Call For Global Governance, Joseph J. Fahey

The Journal of Social Encounters

This essay examines the historical context that led to Pope John XXIII’s proposal for a global “public authority” in his April 11, 1963, encyclical letter, Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth). The catalyst for this letter was the Cuban Missile Crisis that occurred between October 22 and October 29, 1962. Pope John offered to mediate that crisis, and President Kennedy and Premier Khrushchev agreed and eventually came to an agreement not only to end the crisis but also to negotiate a limited nuclear test ban treaty. In the last year of his life, a time for him …

Women Count For Peace And Security: A Story Of Collaboration In The Philippines, Jasmin Nario-Galace

The Journal of Social Encounters

On 31 October 2000, United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325, the first Women, Peace, and Security resolution, was adopted by the United Nations Security Council. The resolution mandated UN member states to increase women’s participation in decision-making in matters that relate to peace and security, particularly in conflict prevention, conflict resolution, peacebuilding, and post-conflict reconstruction. Years after its adoption, however, implementation was slow and scattered and hardly changed the invisibility and marginalization of women in decision-making on matters of peace and security, where women have a unique perspective on keeping and making peace and have a historical tradition of …

In Search Of Trojan Horses: The United Nations Culture War, Patricia Ackerman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the expanding influence of the religious Right at the UN, building on extant scholarship on the role of the culture war at the UN. This scholarship has tracked the increasing presence of the religious Right following the Beijing World Conference on Women and the Cairo Conference of Population and Development. Since that time, there has been a systematic and strategic movement against LGBT human rights and sexual and reproductive health and rights. The religious Right influence UN discourse, documents, and global policy in favor of their agenda. This conflict manifests in a frenzied media and policy battle …

How Two Sunken Ships Caused A War: The Legal And Cultural Battle Between Great Britain, Canada, And The Inuit Over The Franklin Expedition Shipwrecks, Christina Labarge

Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

Evolving Conceptions Of Sovereignty As Applied To Membership In International Organizations, Luke C. Radice

CMC Senior Theses

In the current international climate, both nations and individuals increasingly question both the validity and necessity of international organizations. This paper seeks to answer some of those questions, and to determine why countries choose to surrender significant portions of the national power that they are afforded under traditional perceptions of “Westphalian sovereignty”. This question is answered through an analysis of historical political thought on the concept of Sovereignty, then is applied to two case studies: the United Nations and the European Union, in which the benefits and downsides of surrendering sovereignty are discussed. Ultimately, this thesis concludes that the concept …

Pamir And Rahila, Pamir, Rahila, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Pamir is from Afghanistan. He is a Hazarah, an ethnic minority group in Afghanistan. The Taliban hates his people. Nearly every member of his family has bullet wounds and war scars. His father was shot during the Mujahedin War and still has bullets in his leg. His older brother is blind in one eye and is still in Iran. His other brother was shot in the head and killed somewhere between the age of thirteen and fifteen. They escaped to Iran from Afghanistan, but the police caught Pamir and took him to a camp. They told him he could either …

Book Review: Kofi Annan And The Role Of Morality In International Relations, Robert Potts

The Cohen Journal

This is a book review of Interventions: A life in War and Peace. The book was written by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Exhume Cedaw From Its Grave: An Analysis Of The Actors Who Helped To Bury The Convention On The Elimination Of Discrimination Against Women In The United States, Kasie Durkit

Honors Projects

In November of 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed what was one of the most comprehensive women’s rights treaties of its kind: the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. Authored by United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women, “CEDAW” was designed to galvanize states to take all appropriate measures to modify existing laws, regulations, customs and practices that constitute discrimination against women. As of April of 2014, 187 world countries have signed and ratified CEDAW, thereby adopting many of its principles. Yet, the United States is one of only seven countries (including Iran and Sudan no less) not …

Promoting Gender And Building Peace: Evolving Norms And International Practices, Renata Avelar Giannini

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

The United Nations (UN) has incorporated a strong gender perspective into its peacekeeping operations (PKO) based on a renewed focus on women's rights and participation in peace processes. These efforts are part of a complex organizational learning process in which women's central role in peace processes and the increasing efforts to respond to conflict-related sexual violence have become a central component of the organization' s strategy to build a lasting peace. The underlying logic is that it is only after an equitable society is founded and when the other half of the population's voice has been included in the political …

An Examination Of The Varying Role Of The United Nations In The Civil Wars Of Rwanda And El Salvador, Vanessa Jaramillo-Cano

Honors College Theses

The purpose of this work is to examine the efforts of the United Nations in the Post-Cold War era with special emphasis on peacekeeping missions. A comparative study of recent United Nations peacekeeping operations will be completed to identify the variables that encourage or discourage international (UN) involvement in cases of civil conflict. For the purpose of this work, civil conflict will be narrowly defined as a domestic conflict with two major armed groups (ie: civil wars). Two countries will be studied to explore the nature of the respective conflicts, the transitional methods used by the peacekeeping mission to return …

Development For The Past, Present, And Future: Defining And Measuring Sustainable Development, Max Cantor

Senior Honors Projects

In 1987, the United Nations released the Brundtland Report, which defined sustainable development as “development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” While this definition provides a relatively stable theoretical base from which development economists and political scientists can begin to tackle issues surrounding sustainable development, the inherently amorphous nature of this definition has also created a fair amount of ambiguity in both the economic literature surrounding sustainable development and the subsequent attempts by economists to measure it.

Historically, those interested in the science of development have typically …

Stephen James On Human Rights At The Un: The Political History Of Universal Justice By Roger Normand & Sarah Zaidi. Bloomington, In: Indiana University Press. 2008. 486pp., Stephen James

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Human Rights at the UN: The Political History of Universal Justice by Roger Normand & Sarah Zaidi. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. 2008. 486pp.

Gregory J. Moore On The U.N. Secretary General And Moral Authority: Ethics And Religion In International Leadership. Edited By Kent J. Kille. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. 2007. 370pp., Gregory J. Moore

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The U.N. Secretary General and Moral Authority: Ethics and Religion in International Leadership. Edited by Kent J. Kille. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. 2007. 370pp.

China- Tibet Conflict, Allen Gnanam

Allen Gnanam

China- Tibet tensions are continually growing, as Tibetans are protesting for total independence from China, despite condemnation from their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who is only seeking a sense of autonomy for Tibet (Sinder, 2008). As Tibetan protests are becoming violent and aggressive, the Dalai Lama has also threatened to resign as Tibet’s government in exile (Sinder, 2008), however, his rhetoric is not being exposed to the Tibetan people, due to government censorship in China. Therefore the Dalai Lama, an exiled institutional entrepreneur, has to find new methods that will enable his influential message, to be received by the …

On Moral Arguments Against A Legal Right To Unilateral Humanitarian Intervention, David Lefkowitz

Philosophy Faculty Publications

As the international response to recent events in Darfur demonstrates, the restriction of authority to intervene to the United Nations poses the greater legal barrier to intervention. From a practical perspective, then, the more pressing question may be whether international law ought to be modified to permit states, or multi-state organizations, to carry out unilateral humanitarian interventions; that is, interventions that are not authorized by the United Nations. The issue here is essentially a moral one: would the incorporation of a right to unilateral humanitarian intervention entail a moral improvement to international law – for example, a decrease in the …

International Monetary Fund, Kris Kirby

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Just as the United Nations (U.N.) was created in direct response to the human atrocities and international conflict of World War II, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was created to help repair the decimation that was experienced by the developed nations that became involved in the war. While both organizations have seemingly similar objectives (i. e. , post-war reconstruction and creation of an environment for lasting peace), the Articles of Agreement of the IMF, however, contains no explicit mention of human rights.

Trends. Why Humanitarian Workers Should Be Killed: A Perspective From Nietzschean Slave Morality, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This Trends article discusses different views of the murders of United Nations humanitarian workers in Iraq – first, from a modern Western perspective, and, second, from the perspective of Friedrich Nietzsche as he considered the transvaluation of what is Good on the part of the powerless.

Trends. When Governments Want Government To Change, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This Trends article discusses regime change in Germany and Iraq in a political psychological context.

An International Constitutional Moment, William W. Burke-White, Anne-Marie Slaughter

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Universality By Consensus: The Evolution Of Universality In The Drafting Of The Udhr, Amy Eckert

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Drafting, Origins & Intent by Johannes Morsink. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press (Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights), 2000. 400pp.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) has helped to define human rights standards and bring them to the forefront of global concern. Yet the UDHR continues to suffer from charges of cultural imperialism. While many scholars have answered these charges with philosophical justification for universal human rights, Johannes Morsink takes another approach to the question of cultural relativism in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Origins, Drafting & Intent.

On Ethical Peacekeeping: Ambivalence And Politics At The United Nations, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article highlights the significant interdependence between strategic and ethical concerns in international peacekeeping controlled by the United Nations (UN).

Neutrality, Peacekeeping, And Globalization: Problems For The United Nations In Africa, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes problems facing the United Nations as it seeks to effect its global mandate to foster peace, resolve conflict, and otherwise contribute to human welfare.

Psychological Pathways To Minimizing Human Rights Violations Against Children, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article identifies several psychological pathways that governments and human rights organizations can employ to minimize human rights violations against children.

10. Notes On The Postwar Political Scene, Robert L. Bloom, Basil L. Crapster, Harold L. Dunkelberger, Charles H. Glatfelter, Richard T. Mara, Norman E. Richardson, W. Richard Schubart

Section XVIII: The Western World in the Twentieth Century: The Historical Setting

The legacy of World War II was a heavy load for statesmen to bear. The collapse of Germany, Italy, Japan, and their lesser allies left a power vacuum, temporarily filled by the armies of occupation. Military losses were half again as high as in World War I. Even greater was the different in civilian losses. For every civilian who died a war death in 1914-1918, at least a score (a total of some 20,000,000) perished in 1939-1945. Material losses in housing and productive capacity were staggering. [excerpt]