During the Bosnian War (1992-1995), despite the efforts of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR), thousands of lives were lost in heinous attacks on Bosnian Muslims, perpetrated mostly by Bosnian Serbs. Using a constructivist approach, this paper investigates why the United Nations (UN) failed in their mandate to protect the Bosnian people. To do so, it examines the deeply entrenched norms that have traditionally guided UN peacekeeping – namely, impartiality and non-use of force. By tracing the key events that defined the UN’s involvement in this conflict in relation to existing theoretical models of norm emergence and evolution, the paper finds that the UN’s strict adherence to these principles significantly contributed to their failure to achieve their objectives. This is evidenced by the limited capacity of the UN peacekeepers during the conflict, the swift improvement of conditions following the replacement of UNPROFOR with the NATO-led Implementation Force, and the developments within the UN that ensued in the following years. The paper concludes with potential implications of these findings and suggestions for further research.
{"title":"Too Little, Too Late: The Constraining Effect of Traditional Peacekeeping Norms On the UN Protection Forces and its Consequences","authors":"A. Franken","doi":"10.26443/firr.v9i2.16","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26443/firr.v9i2.16","url":null,"abstract":"During the Bosnian War (1992-1995), despite the efforts of the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR), thousands of lives were lost in heinous attacks on Bosnian Muslims, perpetrated mostly by Bosnian Serbs. Using a constructivist approach, this paper investigates why the United Nations (UN) failed in their mandate to protect the Bosnian people. To do so, it examines the deeply entrenched norms that have traditionally guided UN peacekeeping – namely, impartiality and non-use of force. By tracing the key events that defined the UN’s involvement in this conflict in relation to existing theoretical models of norm emergence and evolution, the paper finds that the UN’s strict adherence to these principles significantly contributed to their failure to achieve their objectives. This is evidenced by the limited capacity of the UN peacekeepers during the conflict, the swift improvement of conditions following the replacement of UNPROFOR with the NATO-led Implementation Force, and the developments within the UN that ensued in the following years. The paper concludes with potential implications of these findings and suggestions for further research.","PeriodicalId":417989,"journal":{"name":"Flux: International Relations Review","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115055347","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The international refugee regime is marked by a widening gap between the constitutional democratic values of countries in the global north and the practices employed by their state executives. While states have committed to the rights of refugees by joining the 1951 Refugee Convention, they have simultaneously subverted the rule of law in the name of security by instituting practices that externalize asylum: neo-refoulement. The purpose of this article is to examine the extent to which judicial power can be used to combat executive practices of neo-refoulement. This article considers asylum claims heard in the Greek appellate court system pertaining to the safe third country agreement between the European Union and Turkey. The article concludes that, under a system of coequal institutions, judicial power and case law harbour the potential for necessitating the consideration of all individual asylum cases effectively disarming practices of neo-refoulement.
{"title":"Courting Asylum: How Asylum Claimants in Greece are Using Judicial Power to Combat neo-Refoulement and the EU-Turkey Safe Third Country Agreement","authors":"Ender McDuff","doi":"10.26443/firr.v9i2.12","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26443/firr.v9i2.12","url":null,"abstract":"The international refugee regime is marked by a widening gap between the constitutional democratic values of countries in the global north and the practices employed by their state executives. While states have committed to the rights of refugees by joining the 1951 Refugee Convention, they have simultaneously subverted the rule of law in the name of security by instituting practices that externalize asylum: neo-refoulement. The purpose of this article is to examine the extent to which judicial power can be used to combat executive practices of neo-refoulement. This article considers asylum claims heard in the Greek appellate court system pertaining to the safe third country agreement between the European Union and Turkey. The article concludes that, under a system of coequal institutions, judicial power and case law harbour the potential for necessitating the consideration of all individual asylum cases effectively disarming practices of neo-refoulement.","PeriodicalId":417989,"journal":{"name":"Flux: International Relations Review","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130609656","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
On examining the political theories of John Rawls and Charles Beitz, this paper is a product of the perceived disparities between the idealism of human rights theory and the socio-political failures of the real-time human rights corpus. With both theorists serving as the moral and theoretical foundations of the discourse, the loci of their arguments will be presented and dissected in light of contemporary political attitudes. This paper aims to scrutinise the human rights discourse through the lens I believe to be its most damaging: cultural pluralism and a simultaneous tendency toward (neo)-imperialist attitudes. Moreover, with the current literature failing to provide adequately constructive answers, I have endeavoured to present a compelling commentary on where I believe the necessitating changes lie culturally, attitudinally, and politically. In preserving and upholding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a productive and morally beneficial basis on which to ground this commentary, this paper assumes ‘human rights’ to refer to the articles enshrined in this United Nations’ document. This conception and the attitudes and actions surrounding it have nonetheless incurred significant and warranted criticism, consideration of which prompted the proposed conception that human rights be defined politically as rights to choose.
{"title":"Human Rights: A Cross-Cultural Conception","authors":"Lily Jemima Redpath","doi":"10.26443/firr.v9i2.20","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26443/firr.v9i2.20","url":null,"abstract":"On examining the political theories of John Rawls and Charles Beitz, this paper is a product of the perceived disparities between the idealism of human rights theory and the socio-political failures of the real-time human rights corpus. With both theorists serving as the moral and theoretical foundations of the discourse, the loci of their arguments will be presented and dissected in light of contemporary political attitudes. This paper aims to scrutinise the human rights discourse through the lens I believe to be its most damaging: cultural pluralism and a simultaneous tendency toward (neo)-imperialist attitudes. Moreover, with the current literature failing to provide adequately constructive answers, I have endeavoured to present a compelling commentary on where I believe the necessitating changes lie culturally, attitudinally, and politically. In preserving and upholding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a productive and morally beneficial basis on which to ground this commentary, this paper assumes ‘human rights’ to refer to the articles enshrined in this United Nations’ document. This conception and the attitudes and actions surrounding it have nonetheless incurred significant and warranted criticism, consideration of which prompted the proposed conception that human rights be defined politically as rights to choose.","PeriodicalId":417989,"journal":{"name":"Flux: International Relations Review","volume":"157 s320","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"120854595","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
As the Latin American political landscape shifted in the 1970s to include several right-wing and authoritarian juntas, social and economic factors caused these regimes to turn to neoliberalism to stimulate their economies and solidify their power. Over the next three decades, neoliberalism impacted most of the region with differing degrees of penetration and longevity. It will be argued that various actors contributed to the rise of neoliberalism in Chile and Argentina, including each nation’s military, key political figures and the University of Chicago’s Economics Department. The way in which power was distributed following the coups of Chile and Argentina decisively determined the entrenchment of neoliberal policies in each nation. It was not until the 1980s debt crisis the stark divergences in neoliberalism’s effectiveness would come to light as each nation fought to recover. Finally, the region’s pattern of economic growth following the crisis will be explored to understand how the legacy of neoliberalism remains intact.
{"title":"Economic Freedom and Citizen Repression were Two Sides of the Same Coin in 1980s Latin America","authors":"E. Hedstrom","doi":"10.26443/firr.v9i2.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26443/firr.v9i2.1","url":null,"abstract":"As the Latin American political landscape shifted in the 1970s to include several right-wing and authoritarian juntas, social and economic factors caused these regimes to turn to neoliberalism to stimulate their economies and solidify their power. Over the next three decades, neoliberalism impacted most of the region with differing degrees of penetration and longevity. It will be argued that various actors contributed to the rise of neoliberalism in Chile and Argentina, including each nation’s military, key political figures and the University of Chicago’s Economics Department. The way in which power was distributed following the coups of Chile and Argentina decisively determined the entrenchment of neoliberal policies in each nation. It was not until the 1980s debt crisis the stark divergences in neoliberalism’s effectiveness would come to light as each nation fought to recover. Finally, the region’s pattern of economic growth following the crisis will be explored to understand how the legacy of neoliberalism remains intact.","PeriodicalId":417989,"journal":{"name":"Flux: International Relations Review","volume":"81 4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131335793","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
As prices and vacancy rates skyrocket, the Chinese housing market inspires speculation that a market correction would ripple to a global economic slowdown. This paper draws on available market data and studies the unique aspects of the Chinese housing market to determine whether Chinese home prices are overpriced, and if such a mispricing poses any threat to the global economy.
{"title":"The Chinese Housing Market: Are Homes Mispriced and Can we Expect a Crash","authors":"G. Milne","doi":"10.26443/firr.v9i2.15","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26443/firr.v9i2.15","url":null,"abstract":"As prices and vacancy rates skyrocket, the Chinese housing market inspires speculation that a market correction would ripple to a global economic slowdown. This paper draws on available market data and studies the unique aspects of the Chinese housing market to determine whether Chinese home prices are overpriced, and if such a mispricing poses any threat to the global economy.","PeriodicalId":417989,"journal":{"name":"Flux: International Relations Review","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123758388","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In 1971, US President Richard Nixon declared an official War on Drugs at the international level. This complex campaign sought to shift blame for the proliferation of drug abuse in the US onto coca-leaf producing Latin American countries, like Peru. This paper analyses the way in which the US government applied intense economic pressure to Peru through threatening to retract vital aid, to interfere with the country’s internal politics. It emphasizes the anti-communist Cold War climate which resulted in the aggressive targeting of Peruvian campesinos due to the perception that they were part of the leftists, guerilla group, Sendero Luminoso. The article analyzes the detrimental outcomes of this financial coercion, seen through the uprooting of livelihoods in the eradication of coca crops, mass human rights abuses inflicted onto citizens, and the subsequent sense of distrust in modern Peruvian political institutions.
{"title":"A Narrative of Coercion and Repression: The Impact of the US War on Drugs & Economic Pressure on Peruvian Society","authors":"Sara Gangbar","doi":"10.26443/firr.v9i2.13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26443/firr.v9i2.13","url":null,"abstract":"In 1971, US President Richard Nixon declared an official War on Drugs at the international level. This complex campaign sought to shift blame for the proliferation of drug abuse in the US onto coca-leaf producing Latin American countries, like Peru. This paper analyses the way in which the US government applied intense economic pressure to Peru through threatening to retract vital aid, to interfere with the country’s internal politics. It emphasizes the anti-communist Cold War climate which resulted in the aggressive targeting of Peruvian campesinos due to the perception that they were part of the leftists, guerilla group, Sendero Luminoso. The article analyzes the detrimental outcomes of this financial coercion, seen through the uprooting of livelihoods in the eradication of coca crops, mass human rights abuses inflicted onto citizens, and the subsequent sense of distrust in modern Peruvian political institutions.","PeriodicalId":417989,"journal":{"name":"Flux: International Relations Review","volume":"592 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116554411","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Saudi Arabian and Iranian rivalry has torn the Middle East apart, aggravating the region’s struggles concerning persistent authoritarianism, militia violence, and sectarian tensions. This paper explores the impact of proxy warfare on sectarianization by studying the case of the Saudi-Iranian rivalry in both Syria and Yemen. It analyses the reasons for using the proxy warfare as a means to further assert rival dominance in the Middle East and examines how the rivals use existing sectarian tensions to further their cause, leading to further division. The paper finds that proxy warfare has fortified the sectarian rift in the Middle East, increasing the risk of confrontational war between Saudi Arabia and Iran and exacerbating already existing religious strains across the region.
{"title":"Proxy Warfare's Impact on Sectarianization: The Case of Saudi-Iranian Rivalry","authors":"Pauline Crepy","doi":"10.26443/firr.v9i1.6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26443/firr.v9i1.6","url":null,"abstract":"The Saudi Arabian and Iranian rivalry has torn the Middle East apart, aggravating the region’s struggles concerning persistent authoritarianism, militia violence, and sectarian tensions. This paper explores the impact of proxy warfare on sectarianization by studying the case of the Saudi-Iranian rivalry in both Syria and Yemen. It analyses the reasons for using the proxy warfare as a means to further assert rival dominance in the Middle East and examines how the rivals use existing sectarian tensions to further their cause, leading to further division. The paper finds that proxy warfare has fortified the sectarian rift in the Middle East, increasing the risk of confrontational war between Saudi Arabia and Iran and exacerbating already existing religious strains across the region.","PeriodicalId":417989,"journal":{"name":"Flux: International Relations Review","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-02-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130519282","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Following a shift in gendered norms during the latter half of the 20th century, domestic work, and the Canadian Care Regime more generally, has become a sector dominated by migrant women. As migrants, these women lack basic protections by either state involved, making them one of the most vulnerable populations even in developed countries, such as Canada. This paper addresses this precarious reality by undertaking a critical discussion of Canadian public policy. Through a historical lens, it will show how laws and social practices enforced by the state have institutionalized gendered and racial discourses that assign statuses of inferiority to particular groups, specifically that of migrant women. In examining government documents, newspapers, and immigrant novels to outline the evolution of care work in Canada, the paper will demonstrate how the Canadian state, through its political, social and economic practices, continues to reproduce the subservient and exclusionary position of migrant domestic workers for its own benefit.
{"title":"Conditional Love and Canada's Care Regime","authors":"Alec Regino","doi":"10.26443/firr.v9i1.9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26443/firr.v9i1.9","url":null,"abstract":"Following a shift in gendered norms during the latter half of the 20th century, domestic work, and the Canadian Care Regime more generally, has become a sector dominated by migrant women. As migrants, these women lack basic protections by either state involved, making them one of the most vulnerable populations even in developed countries, such as Canada. This paper addresses this precarious reality by undertaking a critical discussion of Canadian public policy. Through a historical lens, it will show how laws and social practices enforced by the state have institutionalized gendered and racial discourses that assign statuses of inferiority to particular groups, specifically that of migrant women. In examining government documents, newspapers, and immigrant novels to outline the evolution of care work in Canada, the paper will demonstrate how the Canadian state, through its political, social and economic practices, continues to reproduce the subservient and exclusionary position of migrant domestic workers for its own benefit.","PeriodicalId":417989,"journal":{"name":"Flux: International Relations Review","volume":"120 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-02-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134294098","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Safe Third Country Agreement (SCTA) is a bilateral agreement between Canada and the United States that involves the mutual recognition of each party as an effective refugee host. This paper argues that although the agreement appears to be pro-refugee protection, in practice it functions as a non-arrival measure, barring refugees from entering Canada. The paper invokes the English School approach to investigate how both parties use the STCA to capitalize on values of order, while appearing to empower the principles of justice prevalent in international refugee norms. Using SCTA provisions, different theoretical approaches, and a thorough inventory of international refugee regime norms, the analysis seeks to contextualize the SCTA. The paper concludes that civil society’s push towards justice and refugee protection forces governments to consider values outside of order, with the potential of addressing both concerns harmoniously.
{"title":"The Safe Third Country Agreement and Global Order","authors":"Zoe Wilkins","doi":"10.26443/firr.v9i1.10","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.26443/firr.v9i1.10","url":null,"abstract":"The Safe Third Country Agreement (SCTA) is a bilateral agreement between Canada and the United States that involves the mutual recognition of each party as an effective refugee host. This paper argues that although the agreement appears to be pro-refugee protection, in practice it functions as a non-arrival measure, barring refugees from entering Canada. The paper invokes the English School approach to investigate how both parties use the STCA to capitalize on values of order, while appearing to empower the principles of justice prevalent in international refugee norms. Using SCTA provisions, different theoretical approaches, and a thorough inventory of international refugee regime norms, the analysis seeks to contextualize the SCTA. The paper concludes that civil society’s push towards justice and refugee protection forces governments to consider values outside of order, with the potential of addressing both concerns harmoniously.","PeriodicalId":417989,"journal":{"name":"Flux: International Relations Review","volume":"199 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-02-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125729184","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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