UN-peacekeeping mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the failure of Srebrenica. Bureaucratic Culture in International Organizations (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject Politics - Topic: International Organisations, grade: 2,0, University of Bamberg, course: International Relations, language: English, abstract: This work deals with the bureaucratic organization of UN peacekeeping missions. It is tested whether bureaucratic misunderstanding can lead to failure and whether this is the case in Srebrenica. It is assumed that discrepancies between the perception of the bureaucrats and the current situation on the ground can be risky with regard to the successful completion of the mission. A further question is also whether bureaucratic hurdles can hinder the successful completion of a mission and whether the Srebrenica massacre could have been prevented with a more flexible bureaucratic interpretation of the rules.

The structure of this work will be as follows: After this introduction, constructivism is explained in principles, followed by a more detailed view of the bureaucratic approach of Barnett and Finnemore. After completion of the theoretical part, the emphasis will be on Bosnia. Chapter three is divided into three parts. The first part is a little overview about the beginning of the Bosnia War, second part gives an overview about the UNPROFOR UN mission in Bosnia and the last section of chapter three deals with the massacre in Srebrenica in 1995. Chapter four will review the case of Srebrenica, the Bosnia mission in general and the UN's failure with the abovementioned constructivist approach.