UN peacemaking efforts in intrastate conflict : the role of neutrality

Abstract

The object of this thesis is to find out how the United Nations (UN) can best achieve a successful outcome in its peacemaking efforts in civil conflicts; specifically it focuses on the question of neutrality or bias in the UN’s peacemaking attempts. By largely using content analysis of UN resolutions and some basic statistics, the findings of this thesis show that the UN is less likely to be successful in the peacemaking of civil conflicts when it is biased. Furthermore, the UN is found more often to be biased than neutral in resolutions pertaining to peacemaking attempts in civil conflicts. These results indicate that, although the UN gains its legitimacy and role in the world from its perceived neutrality, this is not the case and this may have implications for its future intervention efforts in civil conflicts.