THE UNITED NATIONS’ CHEMICAL WEAPONS INSPECTION PROGRAMME AND CONFLICT

THE UNITED NATIONS’ CHEMICAL WEAPONS INSPECTION PROGRAMME AND CONFLICT

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle require creative imagination and marks real advance in science – Albert Einstein

1.1BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

It is often said that conflict is a major characteristic of human daily activities. It is an innate feature, one that cannot be avoided but can be mitigated to prevent violence and grave consequences. According to Rambotham et al (2011), conflict takes its origins from economic differentiation, social change, cultural formation, psychological development and political organization – all of which are inherently conflictual – and becomes overt through the formation of conflict parties, which come to have, or are perceived to have, mutually incompatible goals. Conflict can be constructive or destructive depending on how it is addressed. Constructive conflict can have valuable outcome on human society while destructive conflict can result to damages and loss. Fisher et al(2011) opined that conflict can be addressed through different approaches-given the different dimensions of conflict-which are sometimes linked; conflict prevention, conflict settlement, conflict management, conflict resolution and conflict management.

Conflict resolution, as stated above is one of the approaches to dealing with conflict and a comprehensive one. Wallenstein (2011) defined conflict resolution as a situation where the conflicting parties enter into an agreement that solves their central incompatibilities, accept each other‘s continued existence as parties and cease all violent action against each other. This means, of course, that conflict resolution is something that necessarily comes after conflict. Fisher et al (2011) opined that conflict resolution addresses the causes of conflict and seeks to build new and lasting relationships between hostile groups. This means a conflict resolution process is often towards putting an end to armed struggle, it also means that conflicts are resolved and transformed to workable peace among the conflicting parties.

Saving generations from the scourge of war is the mantra upon which the United Nations (UN) operates, and as a result of this it is a central organization in peacekeeping and conflict resolution operations within the international system. Following the events of 9/11, it has committed itself to fighting against terrorism while taking steps towards reducing the stockpile and use of chemical weapons. This is based on its affirmation that the proliferation of chemical weapons, as well as their means of delivery, constitutes a threat to international peace and security (S/Res/2118/2013). Given this submission, a violation of this act of international law would warrant great penalty on the state(s) involved, and such is the case of Syria.

In order to take a grasp of activities of states with large stockpile of weapons and use of such, the UN establishes a mission for each state to investigate presence and use of chemical weapons. An understanding of these weapons inspections missions can be drawn by referring to what Condoleezza Rice (former U.S national security advisor) said in an interview as regards Iraq in March 2002,

―We need to be very clear on the purpose of weapons inspections. These are not inspections for inspections’ sake, they are instrumental to make sure that Iraq is not trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction and so when we focus on weapons inspections in Iraq, we are to focus on weapons inspections that would be effective… ultimately, U.S believed that regime change is going to be best for the Iraq people and for the region. But clearly weapons inspections that are tough, weapons inspections that cannot be challenged, weapons inspections in which Saddam Hussein is not trying to soften the edges of them would be a helpful step forward”. (PBS Newshour, March 11, 2002)

In this regard, the establishment of a UN mission in Syria was to identify the presence of chemical weapons as well as to verify with adequate information and resources the allegations of the use of such weapons against citizens.

The immediate trigger of the Syrian uprising was the power shift that occurred as a result of the Arab Spring, the first of which occurred in Tunisia, then Egypt, weeks later Libya, Yemen and Syria had their own crisis (Chatham House, 2012). The Syrian demonstrators had strong motives for their discontent with the regime. After five decades of the rule of the Baath Party, the Syrians were fed up with the rampant corruption and nepotism, and the lack of civil and political liberties. After a decade in power, Bashar al-Assad attempted to reform the regime, but the turnout was limited. He introduced a set of economic liberal reforms that benefited the upper class, and mainly those who were close to the regime (Wakim, 2012). The Syrian civil war was caused by many factors, whether local, regional, or international, which interacted to destabilize the Syrian regime. This rebellion was caused by the need of the Syrian people for economic, civic, and political rights, and it happened at a time when the whole Arab region was subject to drastic changes. The conflict in Syria therefore gradually transitioned from an insurgency to a civil war during the summer of 2012. During the first year of the conflict, Bashar al-Assad relied on his father‘s counterinsurgency approach, developed in response to the Muslim Brotherhood uprising in the early 1980s. Counterinsurgency describes a government‘s campaign to restore order and ensure its own reach throughout the geographical confines of the state against armed opponents who aim at the government‘s overthrow. In this case, counterinsurgency describes the Assad regime‘s attempts to regain control over the whole of its territory, an objective it abandoned by the fall of 2012. By contrast, civil war implies that controlling the entire territory within the state is no longer feasible because armed opposition has become strong enough to stop government advances consistently (Holliday, 2013).

1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Despite the apparent successful decommissioning of Syria‘s chemical weapons, the country is still in conflict. Although decommissioning was not aimed at putting an end to the civil war but to limit the occasions of violence in the course of it, this is not to say that it does not affect resolution of the conflict. According to the UN, 191,369 persons have died between March 2011-April 2014. The UN refugee Agency identified that about 2,563,434 Syrians have registered as refugees and 6.5 million displaced people with Syria, most of which are children. With this large humanitarian catastrophe and no feasible approach to combat the crisis yet, insurgent groups continue to thrive in Syria and other part of Middle East and the attendant incapability of international institutions have created another dimension on its own; an insecure world and an almost permanent War Zone. If this should continue, the next vulnerable place could be (some parts of)Africa, where authoritarian leaders still hold the reins of power. There is therefore need to understand the extent to which UN and other international institutions as well as states have been involved in the Syrian crisis both positively and negatively, and derive from critical analysis the effect of weapons inspections and possible impact on conflict resolution.

TOPIC: THE UNITED NATIONS’ CHEMICAL WEAPONS INSPECTION PROGRAMME AND CONFLICT

Chapters: 1 - 5
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Number of Pages: 70

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