Browsing by Subject "exit strategy"

One of the most complex stages in the post-conflict peacebuilding is transferring the responsibility for the country’s future development from international administration to local actors. To success in this international organizations need an efficient exit strategy. Literature review reveals that exit should be thought as a process and exit should not mark the end of all international involvement in post-conflict recovery and peacebuilding. Exits in state-building are fundamentally of political nature, which means that decisions related to timing of exit are often political decisions. The main argument of the study is related to the significance of organizational learning arguing that both long-lasting peace and long-term development depend on the human resources and the society, on the contrary to the fact that most exit strategies focus solely on an economic or political stability which are hard to sustain after international peacebuilders withdraw the country. This study will contribute to the discussion about the exit strategies or lack of those in a civilian crisis management mission, and offers various insights on how to approach an exit from the current conflict areas and how to strategize the exit as a part of post-conflict peacebuilding. The goals of the research questions are to describe what kind of exit strategies organizations have, how they are implemented, and what kind of challenges come with different exit strategies. The methodology consists of a literature review and case analyses of exit strategies of two major international post-conflict operations in Kosovo: The United Nations Interim Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX). The results show that Kosovo remains very dependent on the help of internationals, both soldiers and personnel of UN and EU organizations to function, and there is no clear timetable for either for UNMIK or EULEX to exit Kosovo. The exit of UNMIK has been related to the need to resolve the status of Kosovo, both legally and politically. Many years, the international community was long in handling the question, by finally linking the status of Kosovo to benchmarks, which formed the basis for the exit strategy. EULEX strategic objectives show that the exit of an international organization from Kosovo has not been separated from the governance benchmarks which were a part of the Standards for Kosovo package. Exploration of exit strategies of UNMIK and EULEX and discussion about the use of benchmarks and end states has contributed to a deeper theoretical understanding of approaching termination of crisis management missions in diverse means and ways. The benefit of an exit strategy depends on the mission and context. The planners of missions and policy makers in the EU and UN need to be aware of the context of the mission and of the different type of exit strategies for choosing the best one for the mission in question.