POSC 2601 FINAL STUDY GUIDE
R2P - idea that sovereign states have a responsibility to protect their own citizens, but if
they are unwilling or unable, the international community bears that responsibility
global media - creates sense of common humanity and spreads news of atrocities
almost immediately
Problems with UN Peace Operations - commitment gaps (big talk and few resources);
failure to address local realities; externalities (sex trafficking, spread of disease,
collateral damage)
the Mogadishu Effect - US hesitant to take casualties for humanitarian purposes; US
vowed not to deploy soldiers under UN command; Humanitarian efforts in Africa scaled
back; wrong lessons?
Rwanda - "the ghosts of Somalia continue to haunt US policy"; UNAMIR; 100 days of
slaughter
UNOSOM/UNITAF/UNOSOMII - 1991 overthrow of President Barre; civil war and
humanitarian disaster; 1992 UN mandate to protect delivery of food and other
humanitarian aid; 1993 mandate expanded to national reconciliation and security; US
approves search for general Aideed; Battle of Mogadishu
liberalism for HI - legal (UN charter and customary international law establish legal right
of HI); moral (all individuals are entitled to minimum level of protection from harm by
virtue of common humanity)
Realism for HI - case against HI; state should protect own citizens; states do not
intervene primarily for H purposes; H claims cloak pursuit of self-interest; without
consensus about principles that should guide interventions, R2P undermines
international order; HI will always be based on preferences of the powerful
Liberalism Against HI - states must be established by informed consent of their own
citizens; democracy and human rights cannot be imposed by foreigners; HI should not
be unilateral
bystanders to genocide - lack of US response during Rwanda crisis; lack of political will
and domestic pressure, biases of US policy makers, and competing American interests
individual level Rwanda - widespread use of Somalia Analogy; limited knowledge about
Africa; assumption that violence in region is normal; bias for negotiating with states
domestic level Rwanda - US public opinion; racism? lack of domestic political
incentives; no lobby group or economic interests to steer foreign policy
, international level rwanda - failure of international institutions to facilitate intervention;
structural pressures on hegemon; fears of imperial overstretch; geopolitical priority of
Europe
Just Cause Threshold - large-scale loss of life; large-scale ethnic cleansing
R2P Military Intervention - just cause threshold; precautionary principle; right authority;
operational principles
Primordialist - ethnicity is fixed and unchanging; takes ethnic groups as given; traces
long history of ethnic rivalries; emphasizes how conflict erupts with greed or grievances
between groups; cultural boundaries drive politics (Huntington)
Huntington - conflict will be animated by cultural differences rather than ideological
difference; ethnic conflicts will arise at geographic fault lines between civilizations;
diversity is bad
constructivist - meaning of ethnicity changes over time and place; denaturalizes ethnic
groups; traces where ideas about ethnicity come from; emphasizes social, political and
economic process that gives meaning to ethnic identities; politics defines cultural
boundaries; Said, Mamdani
Mamdani Response to Huntington - politics and power shape cultural categories; culture
is not territorial unit; cultural communities are not monolithic; cultural is best understood
as historical process, not an a-historical category; culture and identities change
bottom-up explanations - economic, societal and political institutions generate conflict;
weak states = ethnic security dilemma; artificial states (colonization -> decolonization ->
recolonization of Cold War -> post Cold war fragmentation
top-down explanations - political leadership stirs ethnic hatreds to achieve agenda;
ethnic entrepreneurs
Genocide in Rwanda individual level - political ambitions of ethnic entrepreneurs, like
Colonel Theoneste, Bagosara, failures and biases of US diplomats, like ambassador
Rawson
Genocide in Rwanda Domestic Level - postcolonial state struggles, increased political
competition
Genocide In Rwanda international Level - changing geopolitical context; globalization
insurgencies - conflicts more likely in countries that exhibit poverty (marks financially
and bureaucratically weak states and favors rebel recruitment); political instability, rough
terrain, large populations
R2P - idea that sovereign states have a responsibility to protect their own citizens, but if
they are unwilling or unable, the international community bears that responsibility
global media - creates sense of common humanity and spreads news of atrocities
almost immediately
Problems with UN Peace Operations - commitment gaps (big talk and few resources);
failure to address local realities; externalities (sex trafficking, spread of disease,
collateral damage)
the Mogadishu Effect - US hesitant to take casualties for humanitarian purposes; US
vowed not to deploy soldiers under UN command; Humanitarian efforts in Africa scaled
back; wrong lessons?
Rwanda - "the ghosts of Somalia continue to haunt US policy"; UNAMIR; 100 days of
slaughter
UNOSOM/UNITAF/UNOSOMII - 1991 overthrow of President Barre; civil war and
humanitarian disaster; 1992 UN mandate to protect delivery of food and other
humanitarian aid; 1993 mandate expanded to national reconciliation and security; US
approves search for general Aideed; Battle of Mogadishu
liberalism for HI - legal (UN charter and customary international law establish legal right
of HI); moral (all individuals are entitled to minimum level of protection from harm by
virtue of common humanity)
Realism for HI - case against HI; state should protect own citizens; states do not
intervene primarily for H purposes; H claims cloak pursuit of self-interest; without
consensus about principles that should guide interventions, R2P undermines
international order; HI will always be based on preferences of the powerful
Liberalism Against HI - states must be established by informed consent of their own
citizens; democracy and human rights cannot be imposed by foreigners; HI should not
be unilateral
bystanders to genocide - lack of US response during Rwanda crisis; lack of political will
and domestic pressure, biases of US policy makers, and competing American interests
individual level Rwanda - widespread use of Somalia Analogy; limited knowledge about
Africa; assumption that violence in region is normal; bias for negotiating with states
domestic level Rwanda - US public opinion; racism? lack of domestic political
incentives; no lobby group or economic interests to steer foreign policy
, international level rwanda - failure of international institutions to facilitate intervention;
structural pressures on hegemon; fears of imperial overstretch; geopolitical priority of
Europe
Just Cause Threshold - large-scale loss of life; large-scale ethnic cleansing
R2P Military Intervention - just cause threshold; precautionary principle; right authority;
operational principles
Primordialist - ethnicity is fixed and unchanging; takes ethnic groups as given; traces
long history of ethnic rivalries; emphasizes how conflict erupts with greed or grievances
between groups; cultural boundaries drive politics (Huntington)
Huntington - conflict will be animated by cultural differences rather than ideological
difference; ethnic conflicts will arise at geographic fault lines between civilizations;
diversity is bad
constructivist - meaning of ethnicity changes over time and place; denaturalizes ethnic
groups; traces where ideas about ethnicity come from; emphasizes social, political and
economic process that gives meaning to ethnic identities; politics defines cultural
boundaries; Said, Mamdani
Mamdani Response to Huntington - politics and power shape cultural categories; culture
is not territorial unit; cultural communities are not monolithic; cultural is best understood
as historical process, not an a-historical category; culture and identities change
bottom-up explanations - economic, societal and political institutions generate conflict;
weak states = ethnic security dilemma; artificial states (colonization -> decolonization ->
recolonization of Cold War -> post Cold war fragmentation
top-down explanations - political leadership stirs ethnic hatreds to achieve agenda;
ethnic entrepreneurs
Genocide in Rwanda individual level - political ambitions of ethnic entrepreneurs, like
Colonel Theoneste, Bagosara, failures and biases of US diplomats, like ambassador
Rawson
Genocide in Rwanda Domestic Level - postcolonial state struggles, increased political
competition
Genocide In Rwanda international Level - changing geopolitical context; globalization
insurgencies - conflicts more likely in countries that exhibit poverty (marks financially
and bureaucratically weak states and favors rebel recruitment); political instability, rough
terrain, large populations
