Browsing by Subject "Cyprus question"

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.