The Legitimacy of Peace Operations in Volatile Environments: Between State-Centred and People-Centred Standards

  • Ludwig Gelot Linnaeus University, Sweden

Abstract


Peace operations are increasingly multi-dimensional and are affecting ever more as- pects of life at the grassroots level. While this evolution is necessary, it has created a tension in the field of legitimacy. Indeed, how can the United Nations possibly legitimise its actions in a domain traditionally subject to domestic laws and norms? International and domestic standards of legitimacy are clashing but neither of them is fully adapted to the particular case of peace op- erations. This article outlines a third approach to legitimacy centred on the UN Charter which incorporates the views of the entire legitimacy constituency of peace operations deployed in volatile environments.


References

Beitz, Charles R. 1979. Political Theory and International Relations. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Bellamy, Alex and Paul D. Williams. 2010. Understanding Peacekeeping. Cambridge: Polity.

Bernstein, Steven. 2004. “The Elusive Basis of Legitimacy in Global Governance: Three Conceptions.” Working paper. Available online at: http://www.ciaonet.org/ wps/ighc/0007538/f_0007538_6411.pdf.

Boutros-Ghali, Boutros. 1992. An Agenda for Peace: preventive diplomacy, peacemak- ing and peacekeeping A/47/277 - S/24111. New York: United Nations.

Buchanan, Allen. 2002. “Political Legitimacy and Democracy.” Ethics 112 (4): 689−719.

Buchanan, Allen. 2004. Justice, Legitimacy, and Self-Determination. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Buchanan, Allen and Robert O. Keohane. 2006. “The Legitimacy of Global Governance Institutions.” Ethics & International Affairs 20 (4): 405–437.

Christiano, Thomas. 1996. The Rule of the Many. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Clark, Ian. 2005. Legitimacy in International Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Clark, Ian. 2007. International Legitimacy and World Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Coleman, Katharina. 2007. International Organisations and Peace Enforcement: The Politics of International Legitimacy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Deephouse, David and Mark Suchman. 2008. “Legitimacy in Organizational Institutionalism.” In Sage Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism, edited by Kerstin Sahlin-Andersson, Royston Greenwood, Christine Oliver, Roy Suddaby, 49−77. London: Sage.

Diehl, Paul and Daniel Druckman. 2010. Evaluating Peace Operations. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.

DPKO. 2008. United Nations Peacekeeping Operations: Principles and Guidelines. New York: United Nations.

Dunne, Tim and Nicholas J. Wheeler. 2004. “‘We the Peoples’: Contending Discours- es of Security in Human Rights Theory and Practice.” International Relations 18 (1): 9−23.

Franck, Thomas M. 1992. “The Emerging Right to Democratic Governance.”The American Journal of International Law 86 (1): 46−91.

Gelot, Linnéa. 2012. Legitimacy, Peace Operations and Global-Regional Security. London: Routledge.

Gelot, Linnéa and Fredrik Söderbaum. 2011. “Interveners and Intervened Upon: The missing link in building peace and avoiding conflict.” InBuilding Peace, Creating Conflict? Conflictual Dimensions of local and International Peace-building, edited by H. Fjelde and K. Höglund, 73−88. Lund: Nordic Academic Press.

Held, David. 1995. Democracy and the Global Order: From the Modern State to Cos- mopolitan Governance. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Hurrell, Andrew. 2007. On Global Order: Power, Values, and the Constitution of International Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Lindberg, S. 2006. Democracy and Elections in Africa. Baltimore: John Hopkins Uni- versity Press.

Milliken, J. and Krause, K. 2002. “State failure, state collapse, and state reconstruc- tion: concepts, lessons and strategies.” Development and Change 33 (2): 753−774.

Newman, Edward. 2009. “’Liberal’ peacebuilding debates.” In New Perspectives on Liberal Peacebuilding, edited by E. Newman, R. Paris and O. Richmond, 26−53. Tokyo: United Nations University Press.

Papagianni, K. 2008. “Participation and state legitimation.” In Building States To Build Peace, edited by C. Call and V. Wyeth, 49−71. BoulderCO: Lynne Rienner.

Peter, Fabienne. 2008. Democratic Legitimacy. New York: Routledge.

Pouligny, Béatrice. 2006. Peace Operations Seen from Below. London: Hurst & Co. in association with the Centre d’Etudeset de Recherches Internationales.

Richmond, Oliver. 2011. A Post-Liberal Peace. London: Routledge.

Roberts, David. 2013. “Surveying South Sudan: the Liberal, the Local and the Legitimate.” Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding 7(1): 65−86.

Rothstein, Bo. 2009. “Creating political legitimacy: electoral democracy versus quality of government.” American Behavioral Scientist 53(3): 311−330.

Sato, Tetsuo. 2009. “Legitimacy of International Organizations and Their Decisions – Challenges that International Organizations face in the 21st Century.” Hiotsubashi Journal of Law and Politics 37: 11−30.

Wiharta, Sharon. 2009. “The Legitimacy of Peace Operations” in SIPRI Yearbook 2009, 95−116. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Published
2018/08/29
Section
Articles