The False Promise of International Institutions

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Linda Melvern

Linda Melvern is an investigative journalist with a past on the British newspaper “Sunday Times”. She is an Honorary Professor at the University of Wales in the Department of International Politics. She has been a consultant involved with the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Her books can be found on the UN website as suggested reading for those interested of the Rwandan genocide and therefore is seen as a trustworthy source. Her book is based on interviews and thereby primary sources.

Alan J. Kuperman

At the time of writing the book used in this thesis Kuperman was Resident Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Bologna, Italy (University of Texas at Austin, 2009).
Tendencies in his work as being very “black or white” are identified in some sections and somewhat favoring military intervention. He teaches courses in Military Strategy and in his book “The Limits of Humanitarian Intervention – Genocide in Rwanda” (2007) he puts a lot of focus describing the military equipment, military capabilities; the whole book is very influenced by, and focused on, military questions. The book is mainly based on the author reviewing official documents and to some chapters direct interviews have been made.
This does not mean that it cannot be used as a reliable source for the thesis but that one has to be aware of possible biases. This can be somewhat eliminated by using crossreferences.

Roméo Dallaire

Roméo Dallaire who was the Commander of the UN lead forces in Rwanda has written a book called “Shake Hands with the Devil” which is an autobiography of his time in Rwanda. Since he has suffered a lot from his experiences, and has put a lot of blame on himself for the killings, this might affect his story. His background within the military will color his view on the conflict and he will of course, subconsciously, tell the story from a military point of view to some extent. He has been very critical of the way the UN acted during the crisis. Regardless if wrong or right, his story may have too much of a focus on the UN and leave out other factors. This book would be referred to as a primary source.
The information in this book has been used in order to grasp the whole picture and not used so much for precise information since there may be a lot of Dallair’s own thoughts and ideas in the story.

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John A. Ausink

Ausink has written a number of books in the field of military strategy and especially within the US Air Force. His text “Watershed in Rwanda: the Evolution of President Clinton’s Humanitarian Intervention Policy” (1996) is used as case study material at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at the Georgetown University, Washington DC. Ausink give important knowledge and information about the US decisions and perspective on the situation. That a university uses it as case study material adds to the reliability of the book for use in this thesis although the possibility still exists that the story may include some angled observations. His text is a mixture of secondary and tertiary sources.
Considering the very different backgrounds of the authors and their different focuses on describing the events which took place, a broad knowledge base has been created for this thesis. Through the different aspects of the conflict and the use of cross referencing, the risk of factual errors is minimized. The authors are also well known and have prior published works which have been considered authentic. In conclusion, using these sources as part of the research for this thesis will provide significance and validity to the results of this thesis.

1 Problem
1.1 Aim
1.2 Method
1.3 Limitations
2 Previous Research
2.1 Review of the Sources
2.2 Summary
3 Presentation of Rwanda
3.1 History of Rwanda
3.2 Population Growth
3.3 Economic Regression
3.4 Summary
4 Key Actors
4.1 Rwandan Patriotic Front
4.2 The United Nations
4.2.1 1948 UN Resolution 260 on Genocide ..
4.3 France
4.4 The United States of America
4.5 Belgium
4.6 Summary
5 The Escalating Conflict, 1990 to 1993
5.1 United Nations Observer Mission Uganda Rwanda- UNOMUR
5.2 The Arusha Accords
5.3 United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda – UNAMIR
5.4 The Death of President Habyarimana – the Final Strike?
5.5 UNAMIR II
5.6 Operation Turquoise
5.7 End of the Genocide
6 Reasons for the Genocide – Failing layers?
6.1 Rwanda’s Colonial Past
6.2 Arusha Accords & the Mandate of UNAMIR – the Failure of the United Nations
6.3 International Context – A Unipolar World
6.4 Increasing Poverty
6.5 The Assassination of Habyariman
6.6 Summary
7 Classical Interventions
7.1 The False Promise of International Institutions
8 Different Level
8.1 Conceptualizing Failing Layers
9 Concluding Discussion