Gisela Hirschmann

Peacebuilding in UN Peacekeeping Exit Strategies: Organized Hypocrisy and Institutional Reform

This article explores the relationship between the concept of ‘organized hypocrisy’ and institutional reform in UN peacekeeping. It first demonstrates how the organized hypocrisy in exit strategies arose from the discrepancy between rhetoric, peacekeeping mandates and actions in the field. The analysis then shows how, as a response to organized hypocrisy, peacebuilding replaced the election-based approach of exit strategies from the early 1990s. By evaluating the institutionalization of peacebuilding, the study reveals the hypocritical potential of reform; complex mission mandates, as well as the Peacebuilding Commission, exhibit elements of counter-coupled organized hypocrisy and meta-hypocrisy that remain unresolved.

Organizational learning in United Nations’ peacekeeping exit strategies:

This article illustrates how organizational learning can explain the shift in United Nations’ peacekeeping exit strategies from the election-based approach of the 1990s to peacebuilding. Conceptualizing learning as an ideal-type, three-step process, of knowledge acquisition, interpretation and institutionalization, the analysis reveals the impact of new knowledge on institutional change. It demonstrates how knowledge acquisition became systematized within the United Nations’ Secretariat especially after 2000, with the active promotion of boundary-spanning activities. The analysis then shows how a shared understanding of the role of peacebuilding for exit strategies was developed by the organization’s bureaucracy and intergovernmental bodies in the interpretation step. Finally, it highlights how the establishment of the Peacebuilding Commission institutionalized the transition to peacebuilding as the new exit strategy and how new learning capacities were created. By conceiving the interaction between international organizations and their external environment as a dynamic relationship, the analysis confirms the potential of organizational learning theories for explaining institutional change in international relations.

Accountability Dynamics and the Emergence of an International Rule of Law for Detentions in Multilateral Peace Operations

The range of activities undertaken by multilateral peace operations has significantly increased over the last 20 years; an important aspect of this is the detention of individuals. However, for a long time, it remained unclear what rules and laws apply to detentions in peacekeeping operations. Only recently have rule of law principles emerged within the United Nations (UN) and among implementing states. Hirschmann’s chapter demonstrates how accountability dynamics contributed to a growing rule of law for detentions. It shows how standard setting, monitoring and sanctioning by regional organizations, non-governmental organizations and international courts contributed to core rule of law elements, namely the UN Secretary-General’s Bulletin on the Observance of International Humanitarian Law, specific provisions for the operation in Kosovo and the Copenhagen Process on the handling of detainees.