Browsing by Subject "United Nations"
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Item A Black Seat at the High-Table: A Continent's Quest for Justice and Equality within the United Nations System(2023) Minishi, HortenseThis paper contends with the paradoxes in the realization of the principle of ‘equality of nations’ in a multilateral political system. Established primarily as a collective security framework to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war” (UN Charter, 1945), the United Nations is premised on the “principle of the sovereign equality of all its members” and the “equal rights…of nations large and small” (UN Charter, 1945). Nearly 80 years since the UN was formed, the entire African continent-the largest regional grouping in the organizationremains at the periphery of the UN’s most powerful organ. Yet, the Security Council engages directly and indirectly in the affairs of many African countries through peacekeeping missions and other political engagement. Anchored on a largely unchanged (but challenged) structure, the Security Council centers five permanent powers that were most relevant in the post-World War II era. The Council has been widely criticized by reform proponents for its lack of “equitable representation” as it does not reflect the current geopolitical landscape. Shaped by colonial legacies and nationalistic self-interests of a few elite states, the UN’s historical foundations and present institutional composition has been marred by exclusionary and exploitative politics. Focusing on the prevalent UN’s political, economic, and military influence in Africa, this paper examines how the inequalities in the permanent membership of the Security Council continues to shape international, regional, and domestic politics and conflicts in the continent and beyond. It concludes by arguing that the normative ideals of the UN can only be achieved by addressing this injustice through comprehensive reform.Item Houston, We Have a Problem: Addressing 'Space Junk' in the New Space Age(2023) Carter, ChrisSpace debris poses a new and evolving threat to our on-orbit activities, threatening our global economy, military capabilities, and civil scientific capacity. The space sector has developed rapidly and is now in an era of commercialization, with the number of satellites launched into low-Earth orbit increasing exponentially. The current slate of U.N. space treaties, adopted during the Space Race at the height of the Cold War, are ill-equipped to address this new challenge. Space, since the early days of space law, has been governed as a “global public good”, a framing that I argue has led to critical failings in space governance. This paper uses Elinor Ostrom’s institutional design principles to assess and evaluate the successes and failures of the four primary space treaties, and how they relate to the proliferation of space debris. I also discuss the potential solutions to the threats posed by space debris, including active debris removal and the establishment of sustainable standards in the space sector, and stresses the need for a new perspective of space as a “common-pool resource” as we develop a new body of space law. This paper draws comparisons between global climate governance and global space governance to highlight potential strategies for the future of international space law.Item Leaders' behavior and workers' social identity: "alternative ways of leading and being in organizations"(2013-03) Harewood, Earl AngelinusThis study used an inter-method mixing approach with one-group categorized as the research population (subdivided into team leaders, coordinators and team members) from financial service entity in Trinidad and Tobago. A correlational design was used using four instruments and interviews Problem -- Followers behave like outer-group members and estrange from the leader and the organization when they perceive their leaders as out-group members. Therefore, understanding the philosophical underpinnings of leadership and followship is imperative in developing suitable criteria for selecting, developing and retaining suitable leaders and for understanding the outcomes of leaders’ behavior. Purpose -- The purpose of this study is 1) to investigate the relatedness of leaders’ behavior with followers’ social identity and 2) to describe how participants feel about the way leading and following are being experienced by financial service employees working in a private sector (business) environment in Trinidad and Tobago. Design/Methodology – the study used an intermixing survey research design to examine the relationship between leaders’ behavior and followers’ social identity using quantitative and qualitative measures. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, the General Leadership Questionnaire (sub-scale: II-A, II-B, IM, IS, IC, CR, ME-A, ME-P and LF). Interviews were used to measure leaders’ behavior and the Individualism-Collectivism Scale (subscale: VC, VI, HC, HI) was used to evaluate followers’ social identity and test six hypotheses derived from the hypothesized relationship between leaders’ behavior and followers social identity. Findings – Found was a positive relationship with leaders’ laissez-faire leadership behavior and followers’ tendencies to engage in collectivism behavior but no relationship with individualism was observed. A weak negative relationship was noted with leaders’ transformational behavior and followers’ collectivistic orientation. No statistical significant relationship was seen with leaders’ transactional leadership behaviors and followers individualistic and collectivistic propensities. These results were confirmed through Pearson Correlation. The paired-sample t-test indicated variations in the way leaders (self) and followers (other) though of leaders’ behavior. Both these sets of results were corroborated but the qualitative feedback received from interviews, MLQ and I-C Scale comments and General Leadership Questionnaire (GLQ). Research Limitations/implications – Excluded from the study were senior leaders of the company and would have add another level of analysis. Future studies should be expanded to include comparison groups from similar industries as well as different sectors in Trinidad and Tobago of comparable size and then to expand these studies cross-culturally to better understand leadership-followership behaviors in a changing globalized environment. As well, this study should be repeated as a national study to get a better sampling of leaders’ behavior in difference industries, organization and persons with different leadership-followership experiences. Practical Implication – Leaders’ success centers on how well they understand the cultural implications of the global environment in which they lead, the people they lead and the complex nature of the environment within which they function. Hence, this study provide some baseline confirmatory information to identify areas of leadership inconsistencies and for conducting future leadership- followership enquiries to evaluate leadership models associated with some of the failed organizations and countries to see where the gaps exist. Policy Implication: The findings from this study can be used to develop focused leadership academic programs, leadership development programs and to formulate clear policies for wholesome leader-follower interaction. Social implications – Leaders’ behavior identified and how these relate to followers’ social identity have potent implications for selecting, developing and retaining leaders capable of cultivating a work climate that enhances followers’ social identity where identities are in a constant state of undulation and change from globalization. Originality/value –The findings in this study may provide an added resource for understanding, selecting, developing and retaining leaders who acknowledge followers’ needs, are able to align with the organizational values, goals and objectives, and can operate in the ever changing operational environment with a commitment to self-improvement.Item Race and Rurality: Intersections of Inequality in the Field of International Human Rights Law(2023-05) Smith, Madeline RThis report is an analysis of the human rights situation for rural Persons of African Descent, with a specific focus on how race and rurality intersect and lead to unequal human rights outcomes. It consists of data analyses from the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination as well as literature reviews from experts in the fields related to this topic.Item The United Nations Security Council and humanitarian intervention: Causal stories about human rights and war.(2008-06) Walling, Carrie BoothA dramatic shift in international practice emerged in the 1990s when the United Nations Security Council authorized military humanitarian intervention to stop gross human rights violations. During the Cold War, the Security Council did not halt mass killing and sanctioned states that intervened in sovereign states, despite humanitarian motives or effects. It has responded unevenly to mass killing, however. This dissertation seeks to answer the puzzle of why the Security Council intervenes militarily in defense of human rights in some places but fails to stop ethnic cleansing in others. It traces the emergence of a new norm of humanitarian intervention, the course of its evolution (1991-2004) and the conditions of its use. The dissertation relies on qualitative, comparative case studies: the establishment of no-fly zones in Iraq; three cases of Security Council authorized humanitarian intervention (Somalia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Sierra Leone); and three "non-cases" where humanitarian intervention might have been expected but was not authorized (Rwanda, Kosovo and Darfur, Sudan). There is a connection between the ways that Council Members argue about conflicts and their intervention decisions. For humanitarian intervention to become possible, members of the Security Council, including most of its permanent members, must adopt or accede to a common story about the character of the conflict and its resultant human rights violations-- an intentional causal story with clear victims and identifiable and intentional perpetrators. When significant contestation over competing causal stories occurs, the success of any particular causal story is mediated by: the extent to which humanitarian intervention in that particular case would conflict with or complement the highly internalized norms of state sovereignty and non-intervention; the support of Great Power leadership; and the coherence between causal stories and expert testimony, forensic evidence, and media imagery on the cause and character of the conflict. I conclude that humanitarian intervention does not threaten sovereignty but reformulates it to include citizen protection and the recognition of fundamental human rights. The nascent norm of humanitarian intervention, encapsulated in the responsibility to protect, is gaining international support but has not yet cascaded throughout the international system.