The Essay On UNSC Resolution 1973's Impact On The Libyan Civil War Is Significant.

In this course, you are expected to write one (1) research essay in two (2) stages.1. A Research Essay Proposal (1000 words). Due 31st August.

2. The full Research Essay (2500 words). Due 19th October. Both assignments should be based on one of the following essay topics. These topics are broad in orientation, and in the research essay proposal you are expected to identify your own unique research question, which is the aspect of the topics that interests you the most. Answering this research question must allow you to answer the question you have selected from the list below. Both assignments should be prepared in accordance with the POLSIS Essay Guide.

1. Lakhdar Brahimi, the former UN Special Envoy to Syria, has stated “I don’t use the term human security because I don’t know exactly what I mean, and I worry that someone will come up and contradict me” [quoted in Martin and Owen {2010)]. How would you respond to this concern?

2. Does peacekeeping work?

3. Are efforts by the International Criminal Court to hold individuals accountable for atrocity crimes working?

4. Did the UN Security Council’s application of the Responsibility to Protect, through UNSC Resolution 1973, fail in Libya? In your response, feel free to argue in favour or against, and to critique either R2P’s use in general or how it was applied in this case.

5. In May 2016, former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon argued “we need to strengthen the international systems than manage large movements of people so that they uphold human rights norms and provide the necessary protections.” Can current legal systems for refugees provide this basis?

Background of the Libyan Civil War and the role of UNSC in it

The Libyan Civil war was started in the year 2011 and unleashed war between the army of Muammar Gaddafi and the people who wanted to oust him. In course of the war, it got the attention of the international forum and the UN Security Council intervened into this matter. As far as the UNSC Resolution 1974 the organisation intended to keep peace in the region with the focus on Responsibility to Protect (R2P) despite of having staunch protest in the Security Council (Adler-Nissen and Pouliot 2014). The motive of the UNSC was to initiate a military operation in Libya in order to end the autocratic rule of Gaddafi. Based on this context, it is important to understand the impact of the UNSC Resolution of 1973 and how far it was successful to re-establish peace in the Libyan region. The proposal firmly puts focus on this event and willing to reveal the positive or negative impact of the UN Resolution 1973 to maintain peace in the Libyan region.

The purpose of the literature review is to provide an in-depth study regarding the topic. In this context, the theme of the topic is the aftermath of the UNSC Resolution 1973 on curbing down the wartime atmosphere and to establish democracy over dictatorship. In this part, the literature review will encompass a number of articles that ventilated their perception for or against the implementation of UNSC Resolution 1973 in Libya (Gifkins 2016). Moreover, the importance of the literature review is to figure out the vitality of the UNSC Resolution 1973 so that it can be argued whether the resolution was a fail or helped to attain peace in Libya.

The issue regarding the UN intervention in war torn Libya was played a significant role in the international politics and had a great impact on the Libyan political situation as well. In this regard, it is pertinent to analyse the impact of UN intervention in Libya and the outcome. As a matter of fact, the proposal tries to put stress on particularly the UNSC Resolution 1973 that changed the course of the Libyan Civil War in 2011 (Beresford 2015). In this context, the purpose of the UNSC Resolution 1973 is very important to understand. The resolution was adopted under the Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter with the role to effect an immediate ceasefire and complete end of violence against all the civilians. In other words, the role of the UNSC Resolution 1973 is to protect the innocent civilians during war. The plan for a ‘no fly zone’ was conduct with an immediate effect as an aim to protect the civilians by initiating foreign military occupation (Hehir 2016).

Literature review on the aftermath of UNSC Resolution 1973 on curbing down the wartime atmosphere

In this regard, the proposal is trying to show the impact of the UNSC Resolution 1973 in order to create safety for the civil interest that was violated in Libya. In this case, the most important thing that intrigues to carry out the research was the dispute inside the United Nations Security Council on the question of implementing military intervention in Libya or not. As far as the UNSC was concerned, this initiative was identified as a humanitarian approach intertwined with the doctrine of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) (Ralph and Gifkins 2017). There were ten Security Council members including three permanent members UK, France and Untied States were voted for initiate the Resolution 1973 where as five members of UNSC Brazil, Germany, India, China and Russia abstained with the proposal (Brockmeier, Stuenkel and Tourinho 2016). They argued that for keeping peace and human protection purpose military intervention cannot be an ultimate solution because it could cause serious harm to the innocent people as well. Moreover, deploying military in a foreign country is considered to be against the respecting the sovereignty of that country. Nonetheless, the R2P doctrine was implemented in Libya but the interesting part is that a number of civilians were also died due to the blasts and gunshots of the UN Forces. Furthermore, the news report showed that UN Peace Keeping Forces were engaged in rape and sexual violence in the region (McGreal 2015). The UN intervention and deploying military occupation created a fiasco in Libya which was shattered the purpose of the UNSC Resolution 1973 (Ralph and Gifkins 2017). 

The thesis statement of this proposal will be the intervention of the UNSC in Libya created catastrophe and debacle against the protection of the civilians.

The research question is ‘why did the UNSC R2P resolution fail to restore peace in Libya?’

It will be analytical and effective research if the case of the UNSC occupation in Libya can be compared with one or two different cases. As the purpose of this proposal is to figure out the importance of UNSC Resolution 1973 in the course of installing peace in the Libyan territory, there are several numbers of other cases or examples where the UNSC also puts emphasis on establishing peace and safeguarding humanity. In the case of the ethical clashing in Rwanda or Iraq crisis. As a matter of fact, it can be argued that the Iraq crisis was occurred just before war broke out in Libya and on that context it will be pertinent to compare and contrast the role of United Nations Security Council (Magnarella 2018). Furthermore, the event of the UN intervention in the ethnic conflict between the Tutsi and Hutu in Rwanda can also be identified as an important aspect to assess the pragmatic and rational approach of the United Nation in intervening in such issues (Beardsley, Cunningham and White 2017).

It can be argued that the purpose of this research has no intention to condemn UNSC as the sole responsible entity to intensify the war situation in Libya. On the contrary, the proposal is trying to understand the impact of the UNSC Resolution 1973 on the context of Libyan Civil War. In this regard, there are two contradictory theory related to the issue. One is reflecting support for the UN intervention in Libya and creates justification for it. On the other hand, researches had also conducted that emphasised on the failure of the UNSC to establish peace and humanity in that region. In response to that, this proposal follows the later one and tries to develop justification through a scientific research. 

References

Adler-Nissen, R. and Pouliot, V., 2014. Power in practice: Negotiating the international intervention in Libya. European journal of international relations, 20(4), pp.889-911.

Beardsley, K., Cunningham, D.E. and White, P.B., 2017. Resolving civil wars before they start: The UN Security Council and conflict prevention in self-determination disputes. British Journal of Political Science, 47(3), pp.675-697.

Beresford, A., 2015. A responsibility to protect Africa from the West? South Africa and the NATO intervention in Libya. International Politics, 52(3), pp.288-304.

Brockmeier, S., Stuenkel, O. and Tourinho, M., 2016. The impact of the Libya intervention debates on norms of protection. Global Society, 30(1), pp.113-133.

Gifkins, J., 2016. R2P in the UN Security Council: Darfur, Libya and beyond. Cooperation and Conflict, 51(2), pp.148-165.

Hehir, A., 2016. Assessing the influence of the Responsibility to Protect on the UN Security Council during the Arab Spring. Cooperation and Conflict, 51(2), pp.166-183.

Magnarella, P.J., 2018. Justice in Africa: Rwanda's Genocide, Its Courts and the UN Criminal Tribunal: Rwanda's Genocide, Its Courts and the UN Criminal Tribunal. Routledge.

McGreal, C., 2015. What's the point of peacekeepers when they don't keep the peace?. The Guardian. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/17/un-united-nations-peacekeepers-rwanda-bosnia [Accessed 28 Aug. 2018].

Ralph, J. and Gifkins, J., 2017. The purpose of United Nations Security Council practice: Contesting competence claims in the normative context created by the Responsibility to Protect. European journal of international relations, 23(3), pp.630-653.