Why does the United Nations Security Council take up some issues for discussion and not others? What factors shape the Council's actions? With insights from legislative bargaining, this book explores the agenda-setting powers granted in the institutional rules and the international and domestic factors motivating behaviour and shaping resolutions.

With the rupture of the UN Security Council in March 2003 over the US spearheaded intervention in Iraq, the attempts made to subject the use of force to the rule of law had failed. Widespread Europe-US disagreement of the role of the UNSC has hindered more effective decisions for China and its European and American counterparts in the Security Council. Iraq, China and the UN Security Council examines the role of China's policy behaviour in relation to the Iraq intervention, in order to develop a better understanding of this fast-rising power within the UN. It looks at key questions such as: What consequences may arise if China’s actions are based on a set of values and national interests far removed from those of the major Western powers? Could China’s attitude disrupt the traditional working and normative practice of the United Nations? The book will be of interest to scholars and students of international relations and Chinese Politics.

The elections of nonpermanent members to the Security Council have become an increasingly competitive political and diplomatic game. Why do states assign to the lengthy, expensive, and difficult commitment that a Security Council candidature entails? What do they want to achieve and why are some states more successful in their endevour? This book establishes that the electoral results over time contribute to a stratified order between states and associate a term in the Council with multiple power enhancing benefits. It explores, especially, the significance of the campaigns carried out by competing candidates for the outcome of the UNSC elections. Contributors are: Anna María Eggertsdóttir, Jóna Sólveig Elínardóttir, Fredrik Dybfest Hjorthen, Touko Piiparinen, Tarja Seppä, Anni Tervo and Baldur Thorhallsson

In 2010, millions of men, women, and children were killed, raped, displaced, injured, or recruited by force in armed conflicts throughout the world. Whether caught in the crossfire or deliberately targeted, civilians too often suffer disproportionately as a result of conflict. The primary obligation to protect civilians affected by conflict lies with national governments and parties to conflict. However, when these actors are unable or unwilling to fulfill this obligation, the international community, in particular the UN Security Council (UNSC) has a responsibility to recognize the plight of civilians caught up in conflict and to take action to protect them. This paper reviews the impact of armed conflicts on civilians in 2010, and challenges the UNSC to be more informed and consistent in its approach to protecting civilians in armed conflict.

UN peace operations are increasingly asked to pursue stabilization mandates with lofty expectations of being able to stabilize conflict zones, achieve national reconciliation, and rebuild state legitimacy. This book investigates the relationship between UN stabilization mandates and the concept of ‘human security’. The book is divided into three parts. Part I outlines the emergence of stabilization and other trends in peacekeeping practice and outlines an analytical framework of human security. Part II applies the analytical framework to case studies of MINUSMA, MINUSCA, and UNMISS examining issues, such as human rights, empowerment, protection, and vulnerability. In Part III the book draws out several concerns that arise from stabilization mandates, including the militarisation of UN peace operations and the consequences under international humanitarian law, the risks of close cooperation with the host state and engagement in counter-terror activities, and the potential clash between peacebuilding activities and militarisation. The book will be a valuable resource for academics, policymakers and practitioners working on UN peacekeeping generally, and those specifically looking at stabilization, from the perspective of international relations, international law, peace and conflict studies, security studies and human rights.

Winner of the 2020 Friends of ACUNS Biennial Book Award Group Politics in UN Multilateralism provides a new perspective on diplomacy and negotiations at the United Nations. Very few states ‘act individually’ at the UN; instead they often work within groups such as the Africa Group, the European Union or the Arab League. States use groups to put forward principled positions in an attempt to influence a wider audience and thus legitimize desired outcomes. Yet the volume also shows that groups are not static: new groups emerge in multilateral negotiations on issues such as climate, security and human rights. At any given moment, UN multilateralism is shaped by long-standing group dynamics as well as shifting, ad-hoc groupings. These intergroup dynamics are key to understanding diplomatic practice at the UN.

This book, using an historical approach, provides a penetrating analysis of issues surrounding UN Security Council reform.

This book investigates to what extent UNSCR 1325/WPS agenda has functioned in practice, to advance women’s equality and empowerment in the peacekeeping context and beyond. The book examines whether widespread implementation of UNSCR 1325 and the broader WPS agenda via gender mainstreaming in UN operations has translated into increased gender equality in peacekeeping operations, the broader UN institutional context and, by extension, the host countries in which missions are situated, via norm dissemination. The book investigates this via a review of the implementation of UNSCR1325 in the operations chosen as research sites over three snapshot years. The book undertakes a comparative analysis that scrutinizes if, how and under what conditions gender mainstreaming has succeeded as a strategy to advance gender equality by analyzing the factors/conditions that have led to successful gender mainstreaming across the operational context, and those that have impeded this outcome. The book concludes that, despite rhetorical commitments to women’s equality in peacekeeping since the passage of UNSCR 1325, progress on the ground has remained minimal, and that the operational environment continues to be discriminatory against women. Both quantitatively and qualitatively, women do not participate as equal partners in peacekeeping and continue to have less access to resources and decision-making power, overall. The book interrogates that by exploring the spaces available within law, policy and practice of the UN to pursue the human rights agenda of gender equality and considers whether UNSCR 1325 has enlarged those spaces. It also points to the irony of internal UN structures failing to adequately adapt to their own gender mainstreaming mandates, while those same structures have delivered some gender equality mandates successes externally, at local levels. This book will be of interest to students of peacekeeping, gender studies, and International Relations.

Air power for warfighting is a story that's been told many times. Air power for peacekeeping and UN enforcement is a story that desperately needs to be told. For the first-time, this volume covers the fascinating range of aerial peace functions. In rich detail it describes: aircraft transporting vital supplies to UN peacekeepers and massive amounts of humanitarian aid to war-affected populations; aircraft serving as the 'eyes in sky' to keep watch for the world organization; and combat aircraft enforcing the peace. Rich poignant case studies illuminate the past and present use of UN air power, pointing the way for the future. This book impressively fills the large gap in the current literature on peace operations, on the United Nations and on air power generally.

The Oxford Handbook on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations presents an innovative, authoritative, and accessible examination and critique of the United Nations peacekeeping operations. Since the late 1940s, but particularly since the end of the cold war, peacekeeping has been a central part of the core activities of the United Nations and a major process in global security governance and the management of international relations in general. The volume will present a chronological analysis, designed to provide a comprehensive perspective that highlights the evolution of UN peacekeeping and offers a detailed picture of how the decisions of UN bureaucrats and national governments on the set-up and design of particular UN missions were, and remain, influenced by the impact of preceding operations. The volume will bring together leading scholars and senior practitioners in order to provide overviews and analyses of all 65 peacekeeping operations that have been carried out by the United Nations since 1948. As with all Oxford Handbooks, the volume will be agenda-setting in importance, providing the authoritative point of reference for all those working throughout international relations and beyond.