Browsing by Subject "United Nations"
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(2020)The earth and all of its inhabitants are currently on a trajectory of multiple cascading global crises, which threaten the existence of all beings and the complex relations, which enable the functioning of all societies. In addition to posing a physical threat to human and non-human existence, the climate emergency also poses a conceptual and an ontological challenge. Therefore, this thesis focuses on the institutionalized and globalized ontological assumptions (or imaginaries) at the core of the current world-system (/ecology) characterized by capitalism. One of the main arguments in this thesis is that the perpetuation of the core imaginaries (namely those of Society and Nature’s dualism, mechanistic image of the world and hierarchical existence) at the root of current global structures, as well as the international climate responses, has led to inadequate and misinformed responses to the emergency. The methodological approach of this thesis is an incorporated synchronic and diachronic analysis which combines the world-ecological theory with the analytical tool of social imaginaries (referring to representations of individual and social existence; the ‘truths’ according to which people live and the shared understandings of ‘what is’ and ‘how it is’). The data consists of United Nations’ policy documents, which include the Paris climate agreement, the Katowice Climate package and reports from related Conference of the Parties (COP –meetings). This thesis shows how the dominant climate responses of the UN (as the main international climate actor), are built on and framed by the imaginaries at the root of capitalism as a world-system, thus continuing the global and institutional enactment of the distorted imaginaries powering the extractive, othering and exploitative practices which constitute the foundation of the capitalist world-ecology. By examining the current responses to the climate emergency within the wider world-ecological context, this thesis takes part in the increasing critical scholarly work tackling concurrent global crises from radical, alternative and multidisciplinary perspectives. It also offers a new contribution for developing the world-ecological theory further, by incorporating a new analytical tool of social imaginaries, which equips the theory better in studying complex agency within the existing conversation. This thesis is thus a new contribution to the world-ecological conversation, which with the notion of all beings being part of the same co-constitutive existence, can be extremely useful in mapping out the currently dominant global practices and structures, and the (onto)logics at the foundation of these, while simultaneously addressing the a-symmetrical psycho-social aspects of life and environment-making.
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(2018)The purpose of this thesis is to examine the Cyprus conflict, the role of United Nations (UN) in the conflict resolution and the gender perspective adopted by the UN in the peace process. The interest for this study arises from the extensive role of the UN on the island and from the fact that the peace negotiations failed again, after decades of mediation, in July 2017. The research question of the thesis is divided into two parts. The first research question is: “How could the observations of Security Council and Secretary-General on the Cyprus question be illuminated?” and the second question is: “What could be the implications of these observations for the resolution of the conflict?” The theoretical framework of the thesis builds on Feminist International Relations and Feminist Security Studies. More specifically, this thesis focuses on Poststructuralist Feminism, which examines language, discourses and power relations embedded in language. Drawing from these approaches, central to this thesis is the concept of hegemonic masculinity. It refers to practices that legitimize the position of the hegemonic group in the society and enforces the subordination of other groups. The concept has been formulated into four analytical tools that are used in the analysis. They are the Greek citizen-warrior model, the patriarchal Judeo-Christian model, the honour/patronage model and the Protestant bourgeois-rationalist model of masculinity. The data of this thesis consists of the reports of the Secretary-General and Resolutions of the Security Council from May 2015 to July 2017. The analysis is conducted through a qualitative content analysis. As results, this thesis proposes that the observations of the UN can be illuminated mostly through the bourgeois-rationalist model of masculinity. Some observations can be highlighted with the citizen-warrior model. Some hints of the patriarchal Judeo-Christian and the honour/patronage model are also present in the data. The analysis suggests that the gender perspective of the UN in Cyprus is limited by nature. It is a mix of bourgeois-rationalist egalitarian values and patriarchal values from the other masculinity models. The peace process imposed by the UN is argued for with rationality and is technical by nature. The actions encouraged by the UN on the island focus on technical aspects of the peace process but they lack in building trust between the communities. The actions of the UN on the island are also argued for with traditional security values such as hard security and survival and hints of superiority and paternalism. The results suggest that power relations exist in the UN that result in gender hierarchies. This implies that the peace process and peacekeeping operation of the United Nations in Cyprus lacks a genuine gender perspective. The lack of genuine gender perspective has negative effects on the peace process, its chances of succeeding and a solution to be found and implemented successfully. Women have not been equally included in the peace negotiations and this sets limits to the possibilities of the peace process resulting in a successful solution.
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(2022)This thesis studies the discussion over the Estonian citizenship issue in the United Nations (UN) and in Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) from 1993 to 1997. The citizenship question refers to a case, where Estonia, according to its state-continuum paradigm, restored its pre-Soviet citizenship legislation. As a consequence, all people residing in its territory, besides people eligible for citizenship according to the pre-Soviet law, became stateless. The case of Estonian citizenship is part of the bigger paradigm change in minority questions in post-Cold War world. The thesis’ primary sources are gathered from public online archives of the aforementioned organisations. The sources consist of correspondences and other relevant documents related to the topic. The sources are analysed by small-state realism and strategic culture theories, which help to analyse the internal factors, i.e., the long-term ambition of politically allying with the West and the trauma of Soviet occupation, that had an effect Estonia’s use of language in diplomatic arenas. This framework is then combined with speech-act theory and new rhetoric’s audience centricity, which reveal the external factors that determined the factors that had to be considered in manifesting the national-strategy. Comparing the speech-acts from two separate forums reveals how a big state affects the use of language of a small-state. In the UN, Estonia mainly defends its citizenship policy against Russia’s torrent of human rights accusations related to mainly Russian speaking non-citizens in Estonia – even though the UN found no signs of arbitrary deprivation of citizenship nor human rights infringements. In the OSCE the lack of contestation results in mutually cooperative relationship aiming to integrate non-citizens via the framework provided by Estonia. In the end, Estonia is able to defend its citizenship policy on both fronts.
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The Future on Shaking Pillars : Civil Society and Green Economy in the United Nations Rio+20 Summit (2013)This master’s thesis study examines the participation of Finnish civil society actors in the preparations for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, commonly referred to as Rio+20. The summit was held in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012. The study is situated in the discussions about the limits and carrying capacity of the global environment and their relation to societal development and economic growth. These so-called 'pillars' of sustainable development (ecological, social and economic) have been a central focus of both non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as well as the United Nations from the 1970s onwards. Civil society has been posited as a crucial part of reaching sustainability. From these starting points, this study asks (1) who were the participants of the preparatory process, (2) what agendas did they promote and (3) how did it turn out in the context of the outcomes of the summit. Four different sets of data were used in this study. First, record and memos of the Environment and development group (Ympäristö ja kehitys työryhmä), which was a central working group for NGO cooperation, were used to analyze the structuring of the Finnish NGO group. The records span from 2011 to September 2012. Second, the Earth Negotiation Bulletins, a daily coverage of the negotiations, published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IIISD), were used to gain knowledge about the official inter-state negotiations. Third, five semi-structured interviews with key civil society actors representing Finnish NGOs were used. And last, notes and recording on six Rio+20 themed seminars were used to gain knowledge about the agendas of the NGOs as well as Finnish government officials, as well as the progression of the preparations. The theoretical framework is Laurent Thévenot´s sociology of engagements which focuses on disputes and the construction of commonality. The theory, combined with means of content analysis, is used to answer the above-mentioned research questions. The preparatory process mobilized a group of key actives from established Finnish associations, which were focused on developmental and environmental issues. The discussions on green economy and agendas the NGOs promoted continued from the division between the countries of the global north and the global south, and from the opposition of environmental limits and development. The NGOs constructed their agenda on the dual basis of both ecological limits and a human right-based approach to global inequality, which was then used to criticize economic growth. Analysis of the outcomes of the summit suggests a rejection of these claims. The results support a strong agenda geared towards poverty eradication, development and growth in the global south. The issue of green economy was tied to them. The findings of this study therefore present both continuations of old disputes as well as new developments. Debates in the summit preparations were locked in familiar settings, most clearly in the north-south divide, but the outcomes of the summit on the other hand suggest changes in the status of different actors situated in this division. The study concludes that for the actors engaged in sustainable development, and more specifically on global environmental problems, need to reconsider their agendas in accordance to this new constellation of actors, which emphasize the role of the developing countries.
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