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Sociological institutionalism has been applied to UN peacekeeping only in a limited fashion. Indeed, most peacekeeping scholarship examines the policies, practices, processes, and effects of peacekeeping, but neglects the internal institutional environment in which the UN exists and in particular the internal preferences, interests, and motivations of staff within the UN. In this way, the UN's organisational identity, preferences, and goals are often considered epiphenomenal and thus treated as contextual factors that merit only description
Liberal institutionalism emerged as a major alternative to (neo)realism and played a prominent role in the literature on international institutions, regimes, and regional integration in the 1980s and 1990s. 1 Scholars chose to challenge neorealism in its own turf, so liberal institutionalism combines the belief in the possibility of change and improvement with some traditional realist assumptions. Its contribution to the analysis of international relations and its influence on policy
Feminist institutionalism (FI) aims to understand and explain how power is distributed within institutions. Emphasising gender as a primary unit of analysis, FI's political project seeks to disrupt existing power settlements within institutions and facilitate change by identifying and challenging institutional barriers that maintain gender inequalities and other forms of discrimination. In peacekeeping contexts, these institutional barriers produce gender biases that prevent women from taking up leadership roles and stalls the creation and
2 Historical institutionalism and parliament Introduction To understand why parliamentary reform does or does not take place requires a prior understanding of the context in which it does or does not occur. The characteristics of the institution of parliament are a product of its historical development, and that development has fostered the emergence of particular norms and values that continue to shape its functioning and capabilities. Crucially, parliament cannot be understood in isolation from government and, consequently, parliamentary reform cannot be
As scholars in the field of Public Policy (PP) have pointed out, the new institutionalism (NI) in its rational, sociological, historical, and discursive variants is arguably one of the main theoretical frameworks for analyzing domestic institutions (Radaelli et al. 2012 ). 1 The claim that political institutions “matter” is not only central to the identity of the discipline of political science, but has also served “as a mantra for the social sciences for almost thirty years” (Gandhi and Ruiz-Rufino 2015 : 1). While it is common to
This chapter outlines the primary differences between realist and institutionalist perspectives on alliances and provides the theoretical background that frames the two hypotheses outlined in the Introduction. We argue that realism and institutionalism are distinctive, even if they are not necessarily exclusive of each other, and they arrive at quite different conclusions about the relevance of formal
. Conclusion This chapter discussed the value of rational choice institutionalism, and principal-agent modelling in particular, for expanding our understanding of the politics of UN peacekeeping, including both mandating and control in UN peacekeeping, and in peace operations more generally. Against the background of academic and policy debate on increasingly robust peacekeeping mandates, the division of labour with (sub-)regional organisations, and accountability concerns, the principal-agent model offers a valuable heuristic device for more systematic
‘Joint Policy of Operation’ and the ‘Principles and Protocols of Humanitarian Operation’ in Liberia Humanitarian Policy Group London . Beerli , M. J. ( 2018 ), ‘ Saving the Saviors: Security Practices and Professional Struggles in the Humanitarian Space ’, International Political Sociology , 12 : 1 , 70 – 87 . Boxenbaum , E. and Jonsson , S. ( 2017 ), ‘ Isomorphism, Diffusion And Decoupling ’, in Greenwood , R. , Oliver , C. , Lawrence , T. B. , and Meyer , R. E. (eds), The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism , 2nd edition
UN peacekeeping is a core pillar of the multilateral peace and security architecture and a multi-billion-dollar undertaking reshaping lives around the world. In spite of this, the engagement between the literatures on UN peacekeeping and International Relations theory has been a slow development. This has changed in recent years, and there is now a growing interest tin examining UN peacekeeping from various theoretical perspectives to yield insights about how international relations are changing and developing. The volume is the first comprehensive overview of multiple theoretical perspectives on UN peacekeeping. There are two main uses of this volume. First, this volume provides the reader with insights into different theoretical lenses and how they can be applied practically to understanding UN peacekeeping better. Second, through case studies in each chapter, the volume provides practical examples of how International Relations theories – such as realism, liberal institutionalism, rational choice institutionalism, sociological institutionalism, feminist institutionalism, constructivism, critical security studies, practice theory, and complexity theory – can be applied to a specific policy issue. Applying these theories enhances our understanding of why UN peacekeeping, as an international institution, has evolved in a particular direction and functions the way that it does. The insights generated in the volume can also help shed light on other international institutions as well as the broader issue of international co-operation.
This book represents the first ever comprehensive study of the EU’s foreign and security policy in Bosnia since the dissolution of the Yugoslav Federation in 1991. Drawing on historical institutionalism, it explains the EU’s contribution to post-conflict stabilisation and conflict resolution in Bosnia. The book demonstrates that institutions are a key variable in explaining levels of coherence and effectiveness of the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and that institutional legacies and unintended consequences have shaped CFSP impact over time. In doing so, it also sheds new light on the role that intergovernmental, bureaucratic and local political contestation have played in the formulation and implementation of a European foreign and security policy. The study concludes that the EU’s involvement in Bosnia has not only had a significant impact on this Balkan country in its path from stabilisation to integration, but has also transformed the EU, its foreign and security policy and shaped the development of the EU’s international identity along the way.