United nations’ chemical weapons inspection programme and conflict resolution: case of syria

Thesis Overview

<p> </p><p>INTRODUCTION<br>To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle require creative imagination and marks real advance in science – Albert Einstein<br>1.1BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY<br>It is often said that conflict is a major characteristic of human daily activities. It is an innate feature, one that cannot be avoided but can be mitigated to prevent violence and grave consequences. According to Rambotham et al (2011), conflict takes its origins from economic differentiation, social change, cultural formation, psychological development and political organization – all of which are inherently conflictual – and becomes overt through the formation of conflict parties, which come to have, or are perceived to have, mutually incompatible goals. Conflict can be constructive or destructive depending on how it is addressed. Constructive conflict can have valuable outcome on human society while destructive conflict can result to damages and loss. Fisher et al(2011) opined that conflict can be addressed through different approaches-given the different dimensions of conflict-which are sometimes linked; conflict prevention, conflict settlement, conflict management, conflict resolution and conflict management.<br>Conflict resolution, as stated above is one of the approaches to dealing with conflict and a comprehensive one. Wallenstein (2011) defined conflict resolution as a situation where the conflicting parties enter into an agreement that solves their central incompatibilities, accept each other‘s continued existence as parties and cease all violent action against each other. This means, of course, that conflict resolution is something that necessarily comes after conflict. Fisher et al (2011) opined that conflict resolution addresses the causes of conflict and seeks to build new and lasting relationships between hostile groups. This means a conflict resolution process is often towards putting an end to armed struggle, it also means that conflicts are resolved and transformed to workable peace among the conflicting parties.</p><p>Saving generations from the scourge of war is the mantra upon which the United Nations (UN) operates, and as a result of this it is a central organization in peacekeeping and conflict resolution operations within the international system. Following the events of 9/11, it has committed itself to fighting against terrorism while taking steps towards reducing the stockpile and use of chemical weapons. This is based on its affirmation that the proliferation of chemical weapons, as well as their means of delivery, constitutes a threat to international peace and security (S/Res/2118/2013). Given this submission, a violation of this act of international law would warrant great penalty on the state(s) involved, and such is the case of Syria.<br>In order to take a grasp of activities of states with large stockpile of weapons and use of such, the UN establishes a mission for each state to investigate presence and use of chemical weapons. An understanding of these weapons inspections missions can be drawn by referring to what Condoleezza Rice (former U.S national security advisor) said in an interview as regards Iraq in March 2002,<br>―We need to be very clear on the purpose of weapons inspections. These are not inspections for inspections’ sake, they are instrumental to make sure that Iraq is not trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction and so when we focus on weapons inspections in Iraq, we are to focus on weapons inspections that would be effective… ultimately, U.S believed that regime change is going to be best for the Iraq people and for the region. But clearly weapons inspections that are tough, weapons inspections that cannot be challenged, weapons inspections in which Saddam Hussein is not trying to soften the edges of them would be a helpful step forward”. (PBS Newshour, March 11, 2002)<br>In this regard, the establishment of a UN mission in Syria was to identify the presence of chemical weapons as well as to verify with adequate information and resources the allegations of the use of such weapons against citizens.<br>The immediate trigger of the Syrian uprising was the power shift that occurred as a result of the Arab Spring, the first of which occurred in Tunisia, then Egypt, weeks later Libya, Yemen and Syria had their own crisis (Chatham House, 2012). The Syrian demonstrators had strong motives for their discontent with the regime. After five decades of the rule of the Baath Party, the Syrians………</p><p><strong>1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM</strong><br>Despite the apparent successful decommissioning of Syria‘s chemical weapons, the country is still in conflict. Although decommissioning was not aimed at putting an end to the civil war but to limit the occasions of violence in the course of it, this is not to say that it does not affect resolution of the conflict. According to the UN, 191,369 persons have died between March 2011-April 2014. The UN refugee Agency identified that about 2,563,434 Syrians have registered as refugees and 6.5 million displaced people with Syria, most of which are children. With this large humanitarian catastrophe and no feasible approach to combat the crisis yet, insurgent groups continue to thrive in Syria and other part of Middle East and the attendant incapability of international institutions have created another dimension on its own; an insecure world and an almost permanent War Zone. If this should continue, the next vulnerable place could be (some parts of)Africa, where authoritarian leaders still hold the reins of power. There is therefore need to understand the extent to which UN and other international institutions as well as states have been involved in the Syrian crisis both positively and negatively, and derive from critical analysis the effect of weapons inspections and possible impact on conflict resolution</p><p><strong>1.3 OBJECTIVES OF STUDY</strong><br>– To examine the impact of United Nations in resolving Syrian crisis<br>– To ascertain the effect of weapon inspections in the Syrian crisis</p><p>– To identify the relationship between chemical weapons inspection and conflict resolution in one instance<br><strong>1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS</strong><br>1. What was the impact the United Nations had on Syria crisis?<br>2. What are the effects of chemical weapons inspections on resolving the Syrian crisis?<br>3. Are weapons inspections important to conflict resolution?<br><strong>1.5. SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY</strong><br>Based on the large humanitarian catastrophe posed by the Syrian crisis and the perceived incapability of the international organizations to combat it, it is important to examine the effects of UN roles in the crisis as a universal organization responsible for the maintenance of peace and security, and to also identify the effect of the chemical weapon inspection on the crisis so as to create workable framework for future conflict resolution.<br><strong>1.6 SCOPE</strong><br>The project covers the impact of the United Nations in Syria, looking critically at the loopholes within the space of 2011-2014<br><strong>1.7 LIMITATIONS</strong><br>Its limitation derives from the fact that there is a dearth of scholarly work on the crisis as it is still un-folding. Heavy reliance is thus placed on journals and media reports to help shed light on some of the old archives on the country</p><p><strong>1.8 ORGANIZATION OF STUDY</strong><br>This project will be divided into five chapters. The first chapter contains the background to the study, statement of problem, objective of study, research questions, scope and limitation, and organization of study. The second chapter is the literature review, which is made up of the conceptual clarifications and theoretical frameworks. The research methodology is also espoused upon in the second chapter. Chapter three includes the examination of the impact of the United Nations Mission in Syria. Chapter four examines the disarmament approach used in Syria, focusing on the effect of weapons inspections on the crisis as well as an evaluation of the importance of weapons inspection to conflict resolution. Chapter five encompasses the summary, conclusion and recommendations<br><strong>1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS</strong><br>It is important to briefly examine some terms pertinent to the proposed project, and they include; conflict resolution, disarmament, and chemical weapons<br>Conflict resolution<br>Conflict resolution is a comprehensive term, which implies that the deep- rooted sources of conflict are addressed and transformed. Thus, we can preliminarily define conflict resolution as a situation where the conflicting parties enter into an agreement that solves their central incompatibilities, accept each other‘s continued existence as parties and cease all violent action against each other. This means, of course, that conflict resolution is something that necessarily comes after conflict. It means that we first need to have concepts and tools for the analysis of conflict. (Wallensteen, 2011)</p> <br><p></p>