The establishment of UNTAC. Power or persuasion?

Keywords
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Issue Date
2016-06-28
Language
en
Document type
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Title
ISSN
Volume
Issue
Startpage
Endpage
DOI
Abstract
The agreements on the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) were signed in October 1991 in Paris. UNTAC’s establishment was initiated by the UN Security Council’s Permanent Five (P-5) member states with Resolution 668 in September 1990, making it the first UN transitional authority. There were conflicting interests regarding intervention in Cambodia in the years after Vietnam’s invasion – however, none of the P-5 vetoed the resolutions leading up to UNTAC. The Soviet Union seemed to be the obstructing factor in the early 1980s; its changing position is surprising. It is also puzzling why the P-5 came up with a large-scale mandate, when theconflicting parties in Cambodia were already seeking reconciliation. The question that this thesis tries to answer is the following: ‘Why did the P-5 of the UN Security Council decide upon the establishment of the far-reaching United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), despite their initial conflicting interests and the improving situation in Cambodia?’. A neorealist and constructivist approach are applied to this case in order to find out if either provides an adequate explanation of the change in international outcomes. Waltzian neorealism’s expectation of system change as the cause is refuted: empirically, the transformation of a bipolar into a unipolar balance of power cannot be confirmed. A constructivist framing analysis does provide some insight: the P-5 were able to use a ‘comprehensive political settlement frame’ in the discourse on the Cambodian situation from the late 1980s.
Description
Citation
Faculty
Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen