Aftershocks of change? Assessing the consequences of the 2023 earthquake on UN legitimacy in Northwest Syria from a local point of view
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2024-08-31
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en
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The 2023 earthquake in the Turkish-Syrian border region induced the UN into a local legitimacy crisis: for the entire period of critical lifesaving support, it failed to provide assistance to opposition-held Northwest Syria while other affected regions received immediate support. To this, the UN soon after responded with acknowledgement and promised to make up for its failure “as fast as we can” (Griffiths, 2023).
Path dependence theory suggests that legitimacy crises can be “critical junctures”, i.e. windows of opportunity for profound institutional change. Has this been one for the UN in this context? This thesis explores this based on qualitative interviews with local aid group members while connecting critical juncture frameworks with concepts of local legitimacy. Specifically, it explores in how far the UN is locally perceived to have changed its conduct post-disaster and, if at all, how these changes are viewed locally from a legitimacy point of view.
The findings suggest that the UN has indeed made critical changes to its conduct. Yet, these are neither viewed as positive by the research participants, nor reported to have impacted their viewpoints on the UN overall. The thesis closes with suggestions on how this can be interpreted and explored further.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen