Books by Richard Al-Qaq
Since the end of the Cold War, United Nations peace operations have become an established and pro... more Since the end of the Cold War, United Nations peace operations have become an established and prominent feature of world politics. From the Sudan to the Ivory Coast, the UN now carries-out extensive governance related functions, under the generic rubric of peace operations, and is a significant political force in Southern states and societies. Despite these powerful new political roles, however, UN peace operations are frequently treated by the mainstream professional and academic literature as a normal and non-political set of activities for an international organisation to undertake. A primary task of this monograph is to problematise these apolitical notions, especially in relation to the rise of peace operations within the UN, and to uncover the political and socioeconomic import of peace activities for subject societies. To this end, the first part of the book outlines the political context in which to situate the prevalence of peace operations in the UN today. This context is the historically contested nature of the UN’s ‘programme of work’ among states and various groups of states from the 1940s to our current era. In essence, it is shown that what the UN is tasked with carrying out at any given moment is itself a highly contentious issue, reflecting various political and ideological agendas. Through new empirical research on the UN Secretariat, it is revealed that the rise of peace operations in the UN since the 1990s is no exception, reflecting a Northern agenda to strip the organisation of its political economy functions and replace them with specialised political and security related tasks at the borderlands of the interstate system. The second part of the monograph examines the application of these new peace and security functions in three seminal cases of the 1990s, in Angola, Rwanda and Somalia. What these detailed empirical studies expose is the political logic of their design and implementation, such as how they fitted into wider projects of transforming subject societies into liberal market democracies and how they featured in the bigger picture of great power politics.
Draft Chapters by Richard Al-Qaq
Papers by Richard Al-Qaq
Managing World Order: United Nations Peace Operations and the Security Agenda
Since the end of the Cold War, United Nations peace operations have become an established and pro... more Since the end of the Cold War, United Nations peace operations have become an established and prominent feature of world politics. From Liberia to East Timor, the UN now carries out extensive governance-related functions and is a significant political force in Southern states and societies. Here Richard Al-Qaq leads us to a radical new understanding of the UN and its role in international politics. He uncovers the political and socio-economic import of such 'peace' activities for subject societies, and raises important questions about the functioning and dynamics of the global political order. A critical view of the internal process of programmatic reform within the UN is elaborated by detailed studies of the politics of UN peace operations in three seminal cases of the 1990s, in Somalia, Rwanda and Angola. This book is essential for understanding the new role of the UN, especially in Africa, and the politics of so-called humanitarian intervention and peace-building.
Managing World Order
Managing World Order
Managing World Order
Managing World Order
Folha de Sao Paulo, Mar 29, 2014
Analysis of recent UN Security Council vetoing trends for Folha de S. Paulo Brazil.
Millennium: Journal of International Studies, volume 39, number 2, pp. 579-80., Dec 2010
International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs, London), volume 83, number 2, pp.355-356., 2007
Book review
Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, volume 72, number 4, p.658;, 2002
Book review
Africa, Jan 1, 2001
Book review
International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs, London), volume 83 number 3., 2007
Book review
Folha de Sao Paulo, May 31, 2012
Folha de Sao Paulo, Apr 6, 2011
Analysis piece for the Folha de S Paulo, Brazil, on the military intervention of the UN peacekeep... more Analysis piece for the Folha de S Paulo, Brazil, on the military intervention of the UN peacekeeping force in the Cote D'Ivoire and its significance for peace operation doctrine
Folha de Sao Paulo, Oct 21, 2011
Teaching Documents by Richard Al-Qaq
Theme 5 ! ! Sovereign-Equality and its consequences for international regimes, organisations, and... more Theme 5 ! ! Sovereign-Equality and its consequences for international regimes, organisations, and norms. Challenges to this norm! ! Provides the context of UN activities and programme of work! • To show the extent to which UN activities can change! • To introduce the idea of blocs and alliances within international organisations! • To show how change/programme of work depends historically and politically on balance of forces within the UN! • To show a dominance by states as principal actor in negotiations and to show how that has or could change in future. To be self reflective about this state centric process!
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Books by Richard Al-Qaq
Draft Chapters by Richard Al-Qaq
Papers by Richard Al-Qaq
Teaching Documents by Richard Al-Qaq