The United Nations/African Union Intervention in the Darfur Conflict (2007-2010): Achievements, Challenges and Lessons for the Future (Published)
The paper examined the activities of the African Union (AU) and the United Nations aimed at resolving conflict and maintaining peace and security especially in Darfur, the secondary method of data collection and analysis was adopted. The study made use of conflict theory as the framework of analysis. The findings of the research revealed: that the conflict in Darfur was caused by the colonial heritage, ethnic rivalry, religious intolerance and ecological challenges; that AU and UN have contributed significantly in the peace process in Darfur in the areas of protection of lives and properties, provision of humanitarian assistance, provision of enabling environment for negotiation, among others. Nonetheless, these were not without challenges ranging from logistics, ecological, corruption. The following recommendations were arrived at: proper training for the AU / UN officials on peace keeping; cooperation of all the parties, especially the Sudanese government and AU /UN member states towards conflict resolution; and demonstration of political will by the international community.
Keywords: Achievements, African Union, Challenges, Darfur Conflict, Intervention, Lessons for the Future, United Nations
UNITED NATIONS-ECOWAS INTERVENTION IN MALI- GUINEA BISSAU: GEO-ECONOMIC AND STRATEGIC ANALYSIS (Review Completed - Accepted)
Intervention in terms of international law, is the term for the use of force by one country or sovereign state in the internal or external affairs of another. In most cases, intervention is considered to be an unlawful. Oppenheim (1992) defines intervention as a forcible or dictorial interference by a State in the affairs of another State calculated to impose certain conduct or consequences on that other State. The military intervention by ECOWAS has not been totally successful in quelling conflicts, crisis of regime change and political succession and military intervention into politics in the West African sub-region and the Africa generally. Intervention can be done by various means, e.g. military, subversive, economic, or diplomatic. The latest of these conflicts in the sub-region which ECOWAS has intervened are Mali and Guinea Bissau in 2012. The objective has been to restore democracy by forcing the military back to the barracks or restricting it to the constitutional role of protecting the territorial integrity from internal insurrection and external aggression. But the root causes of military intervention into politics and crisis of regime change or political succession are yet to be adequately addressed by the ECOWAS, for example, issues of legitimacy crisis, poor governance, bad leadership, political leadership failure, political corruption, electoral crisis and political violence have been largely left unattended or ignored. The political conditions in most of the countries in the sub-region and indeed Africa as a whole are not democracy friendly or unsuitable for democratization and flourishing of democracy or demilitarization (Aning and Bah, 2010; Sperling, 2011). Most scholars like Nowrot and Schabacker (1998) focus on the legality of ECOWAS intervention while the likes of Olonisakan (2010) concentrates on the effectiveness of the military intervention in quelling conflicts in the West African sub-region. Despite the fact that peacekeeping partnerships are yet to mature, the general consensus is that the world is headed towards greater integration between the UN and regional arrangements such as Ecowas. Such institutions play an important role, especially in a world with power imbalances, distrust and unrest. Cooperation among states towards peacekeeping mechanisms gives birth to opportunities for burden sharing, balancing power, pursuing self-interest and generally preventing the collapse of world order as it stands. In light of the changing security dynamics, peace operations have become both all the more complex and important. Bringing together regional arrangements allows flexibility for political manoeuvring and unity vis-à-vis mission mandate and implementation. Still in its infancy, peacekeeping alliances should be viewed as a means to an end rather than an end unto itself. It is impossible to obtain a foolproof hybrid operation. But with each step forward, finding common ground for joint preparation mechanisms becomes all the more easier.This paper titled “UN-ECOWAS intervention in Mali: Geo-Economic and Strategic Analysis” . The study is basically a qualitative research method relying mainly on secondary sources of data from internet source, official documents and country websites as the method of data collection. We made use of qualitative – descriptive analysis as our method of data analysis, that is, documentary studies of official document and other materials in analyzing the secondary data. The major purpose of embarking on this research is to examine the geo-economic and strategic implications of UN-ECOWAS intervention in Mali. Thus, we were able to make the following principal findings that, one, the delayed UN backed ECOWAS humanitarian intervention deepened the crisis in Mali. Two, that the poorly funded UN supported ECOWAS peacekeeping intervention worsened the terrorist attack in Mali. On the basis of this, we recommend, one, that UN and ECOWAS should evolve a rapid and quick deployment of humanitarian intervention forces in order to lesson crisis. Two, that UN and ECOWAS should adequately fund peacekeeping intervention forces in order to reduce terrorist attack.
Keywords: Ecowas, Geo-Economic and Strategic Analysis, Guinea Bissau, Intervention, Mali, United Nations
THE EFFECTS OF AN ANTI-BULLYING BIBLIOTHERAPY INTERVENTION ON CHILDREN’S ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR (Published)
Although minimal research supports bibliotherapy in specifically reducing bullying, researchers and practitioners often recommend children’s books and stories to address this topic. The aim, of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an anti-bullying bibliotherapy intervention on primary school children’s bullying behavior and victimization, participant roles, attitudes towards bullying, intentions to intervene in bully–victim problems, perceived efficacy of intervening and actual intervening behavior. An experimental pre-test/post-test design was used. The sample consisted of 98 pupils drawn from the fifth grade classrooms of four primary schools in central Greece. Data were collected using self-report measures, before and immediately after the intervention. The results indicated that the programme contributed to a positive reduction in ‘outsider’ behaviour and enhanced students’ pro-victim attitudes and self-efficacy for intervening in bully/victim incidents. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for anti-bullying interventions.
Keywords: Bibliotherapy, Bullying, Elementary School, Intervention, Victimization