Papers by Kseniya Oksamytna
International Studies Quarterly, 2024
While International Relations scholarship has increasingly addressed questions of race, the liter... more While International Relations scholarship has increasingly addressed questions of race, the literature on international organizations (IOs) has been slower to do so. In particular, it has neglected how race functions within IO workforces. Building on sociological theories of racialized organizations, we develop the concept of racialized IOs. Like domestic organizations, IOs are characterized by enhanced or inhibited agency of racial groups, racialized distribution of resources, credentialing of whiteness, and decoupling of formal rules and informal practices along racial lines. However, IOs display two important differences. First, IOs rely on member states for resources, which requires accommodating powerful whitemajority countries (macro-level pressures). Second, since IO workforces are diverse, their employees possess or develop a range of racial stereotypes (micro-level pressures). Using the case of UN peacekeeping, we demonstrate how the four features of racialized organizations operate in light of these macro-and micro-level pressures. We show how locally-hired peacekeeping staff in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean face constraints on exercising agency; how non-white peacekeepers perform more dangerous jobs than their white counterparts; how whiteness serves as a proxy for desirable skills, while non-white peacekeepers' knowledge is devalued; and how peacekeepers from white-majority countries receive special treatment or deviate from UN-wide procedures.
International Studies Quarterly, 2023
Many international organizations (IOs) provide assistance to governments through country offices ... more Many international organizations (IOs) provide assistance to governments through country offices or peacekeeping operations. Sometimes, government authorities in countries receiving IO services violate norms that underpin the IO's engagement. IO officials must then choose between confrontational and conciliatory responses. These responses are located on a spectrum that ranges from a firm and public response to silence and downplaying. How do IO officials decide on their response? Based on over 200 interviews with UN peacekeeping officials, we argue that the factors that shape their decision-making are found across three categories: individual, departmental, and positional. In terms of individual characteristics, previous experience, career security, and the length of service at a particular duty station matter. Regarding departmental factors, politicization of work, professional composition, and the type of interlocutors predispose departments to be supporters or critics of authorities in recipient countries. In terms of positional considerations, the place of a post or department in the IO hierarchy, relations with other IO entities, and the distance from the field play a role. While important in its own right, decision-making by civilian UN peacekeeping officials is informative about similar processes in other complex international bureaucracies that employ individuals from diverse backgrounds.
Contemporary Security Policy, 2023
Few predicted the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine and especially its brutality. Similarly,... more Few predicted the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine and especially its brutality. Similarly, Ukraine's capable and determined resistance came as a surprise to many. Ukraine, viewed through the Russian lenses, was erroneously characterized as "weak" and "fragmented." In turn, Russia was seen as a modern power seeking a "sphere of influence" through attraction and occasional meddling in neighbors' affairs. The Ukraine-Russia relations were misconstrued as "brotherly." I argue that Russia should be understood as a colonial power whose aggression aims to re-establish supremacy over the Ukrainian nation. This desire arose from Ukrainians' increased acceptance in Europe, which Russians perceived as a transgression of hierarchies. The brutality of the invasion was aggravated by the Russian forces' realization that Ukrainians not only rejected their "rescue mission" but did not need one in the first place. Misconceptions about the Russian invasion can be addressed through interdisciplinarity, engagement with postcolonial scholarship, and attention to facts.
Journal of International Relations and Development, 2023
Commendable efforts to include Ukrainian researchers in academic debates on the Russian invasion ... more Commendable efforts to include Ukrainian researchers in academic debates on the Russian invasion of Ukraine nevertheless reflect knowledge hierarchies that characterise contemporary academia, which is compounded by the difficulties that scholars face when they study violence in their own communities. On a practical level, Ukrainian researchers were busy performing the physical work of surviving or, if based abroad, the emotional work of worrying about the safety of friends and family. Many volunteered their time and resources for Ukrainian causes. The pastoral care and public engagement elements of their job expanded. Some Ukrainian scholars also engaged in tone (self)policing in order to prevent their arguments from alienating key audiences or being dismissed as too partisan or naive. The peculiarities of Ukrainian contemporary history and politics-(for instance, its self-perceived belonging to 'the West' and the fact that 'Western' countries have contributed the most to Ukraine's self-defence) at times resulted in a lack of common vocabulary with postcolonial and critical scholarship. This article calls for deeper understanding and closer engagement between academics and activists working in and on the 'Global East' and the 'Global South', as well as for more self-aware and caring ways of researching war.
Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2022
International organizations face a trade-off between the need to replace poorly performing leader... more International organizations face a trade-off between the need to replace poorly performing leaders and the imperative of preserving the loyalty of influential or pivotal member states. This performance-politics dilemma is particularly acute in UN peacekeeping. Leaders of peacekeeping operations are responsible for ensuring that peacekeepers implement mandates, maintain discipline, and stay safe. Yet, if leaders fail to do so, is the UN Secretariat able and willing to replace them? We investigate newly collected data on the tenure of 238 civilian and military leaders in thirty-eight peacekeeping operations, 1978 to 2017. We find that the tenures of civilian leaders are insensitive to performance, but that military leaders in poorly performing missions are more likely to be replaced. We also find evidence that political considerations complicate the UN's efforts at accountability. Holding mission performance constant, military leaders from countries that are powerful or contribute large numbers of troops stay longer in post.
Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2022
Research on UN peacekeeping operations has established that operations' size and composition affe... more Research on UN peacekeeping operations has established that operations' size and composition affect peacekeeping success. However, we lack systematic data for evaluating whether variation in tasks assigned to UN peacekeeping mandates matters and what explains different configurations of mandated tasks in the first place. Drawing on UN Security Council resolutions that establish, extend, or revise mandates of 27 UN peacekeeping operations in Africa in the 1991-2017 period, the Peacekeeping Mandates (PEMA) dataset fills this gap. It records 41 distinct tasks, ranging from disarmament to reconciliation and electoral support. For each task, the PEMA dataset also distinguishes between three modalities of engagement (monitoring, assisting, and securing) and whether the task is requested or merely encouraged. To illustrate the usefulness of our data, we reexamine Hultman, Kathman, and Shannon's (2013) analysis of operations' ability to protect civilians. Our results show that host governments and rebel groups respond differently to civilian protection mandates.
Third World Quarterly, 2022
Norms can be adopted without modifications or adapted to regional contexts for strategic or princ... more Norms can be adopted without modifications or adapted to regional contexts for strategic or principled reasons. Norm adoption and adaptation can also happen by chance. When adoption takes place without consideration of the norm's effectiveness or appropriateness, we speak about imitation. When adaptation takes place in such a manner, we lack conceptual tools to analyse it. We propose a novel concept of incidental adaptation-divergence between promoted and adopted norms due to fortuitous events. This completes the typology of scenarios leading to norm adoption and adaptation. We apply the typology to the transmission of the protection of civilians norm in peace operations from the United Nations (UN) to the African Union (AU). The AU adopted the UN's approaches in pursuit of interoperability and resources, and out of recognition of the UN's normative authority. It also happened incidentally when the AU temporarily followed the UN's approaches. The AU engaged in adaptation to reflect the nature of its operations and normative orientations of AU member states. Incidental adaptation accounted for the presence of the rights-based tier in the AU's protection of civilians concept. These findings nuance our understanding of norm diffusion, inter-organisational relations and the role of chance in international affairs.
The Global Observatory, International Peace Institute, 2022
As Finland and Sweden begin the process of applying for NATO membership, misleading narratives ab... more As Finland and Sweden begin the process of applying for NATO membership, misleading narratives about the role of NATO’s so-called eastward expansion in "provoking" Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continue to hold sway. These narratives obscure the basic fact that Russia’s war against Ukraine is imperialistic: Russia admitted that the goal of the "second phase" of the offensive is to occupy as much territory as possible. Despite these flagrant admissions, Russia continues to try to disguise its aims, and has come up with a number of excuses. Blaming NATO is a primary one. The piece critiques two narratives: that NATO "provoked" Russia and that "a pan-European security architecture" should replace the alliance.
Global Governance, 2021
Contemporary peacekeeping operations carry out a wide range of disparate tasks, which has trigger... more Contemporary peacekeeping operations carry out a wide range of disparate tasks, which has triggered a debate about 'Christmas Tree' mandates. Did the UN Security Council and the UN Secretariat favor this expansion? Using original data on 19 UN peacekeeping missions, 1998-2014, we compare peacekeeping tasks recommended by the Secretariat to those mandated by the Council. We find that the two bodies differ regarding the nature, number, and novelty of peacekeeping tasks. First, the Council was equally likely to add a new task as to reject a Secretariat-proposed one. Second, the two bodies disagreed more over peacebuilding and peacemaking tasks than over peacekeeping tasks. Third, the Council preferred to be the one to introduce tasks that had not appeared in previous mandates. These findings suggest that the Secretariat favored the expansion of peacekeeping when it entailed low risks and the Council when it could set the direction of the expansion itself.
International Studies Quarterly, 2021
States covet leadership and staff positions in international organizations. The posts of civilian... more States covet leadership and staff positions in international organizations. The posts of civilian leaders and force commanders of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations are attractive to member states. In selecting peacekeeping leaders, the UN Secretariat balances three considerations: satisfying powerful member states by appointing their nationals; recognizing member states' contribution to the work of the organization; and ensuring that leaders have the necessary skill set. We investigate appointments of more than 200 civilian and military leaders in 24 UN missions, 1990-2017. We find that contributing troops to a specific mission increases the chances of securing a peacekeeping leadership position. Geographic proximity between the leaders' country and the conflict country is also a favorable factor whose importance has increased over time. Civilian leaders of UN peacekeeping operations tend to hail from institutionally powerful countries, while military commanders come from major, long-standing troop contributing countries. Despite some role that skills play in the appointment process, the UN's dependence on troop contributors, together with its reliance on institutionally powerful states, can be a source of dysfunc-tion if it prevents the organization from selecting effective peacekeeping leaders. This dynamic affects other international organizations that have significant power disparities among members or rely on voluntary contributions.
The UN Secretariat’s role in the expansion of peacekeeping after the cold war is debated. Differe... more The UN Secretariat’s role in the expansion of peacekeeping after the cold war is debated. Different theoretical accounts offer competing interpretations: principal–agent models and sociological institutionalism tend to emphasize the Secretariat’s risk-averse behaviour; organizational learning scholarship and international political sociology find evidence of the Secretariat’s activism; constructivism analyses instances of both. I argue that the UN Secretariat can be both enthusiastic and cautious about new tasks depending on the circumstances and the issue area. For example, UN officials have been the driving force behind the development of public information campaigns by peacekeeping missions aimed at the local population. During the cold war, it was not regarded as necessary for UN missions to communicate with the public in the area of operation: their interlocutors were parties to the conflict and the diplomatic community. With the deployment of the first multidimensional missions in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, UN staff realized the need to explain the organization’s role to the local population and provide information about UN-supported elections. In promoting this innovation, they played the role of policy entrepreneurs. The institutionalization of this innovation, however, was not an automatic process and required continuous advocacy by UN information staff.
This policy brief for the 'Providing for Peacekeeping' project of the International Peace Institu... more This policy brief for the 'Providing for Peacekeeping' project of the International Peace Institute, the Elliott School and the Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect examines Ukraine’s contributions to peacekeeping operations by the UN and regional organisations.
The chapter analyzes how NGOs campaigned for a stronger UN response to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.... more The chapter analyzes how NGOs campaigned for a stronger UN response to the 1994 Rwandan genocide. It begins by reviewing the relationship between civil society and the UN Security Council. It discusses three aspects of this relationship: the channels of access (for instance, the NGO Working Group on the Security Council and the so-called Arria formula meetings), the strategies of engagement, and the degree of influence. It explores how NGOs, such as Human Rights Watch, Médecins Sans Frontières and Oxfam, appealed to permanent and non-permanent members of the UN Security Council, as well as the broader public, for a more decisive UN action against the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
The International Spectator, Dec 2011
The European Union Training Mission (EUTM) in Somalia, the EU's mission to contribute to the trai... more The European Union Training Mission (EUTM) in Somalia, the EU's mission to contribute to the training of the Somali Security Forces, was deployed in April 2010 and extended for another 12-month period in July 2011. Despite the positive assessment of the outcome of the first training period, the overall feebleness of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government puts the political feasibility of the mission into question. EUTM Somalia can be subjected to many of the same criticisms as the liberal peacebuilding agenda in general for trying to contain rather than resolve conflict and maintaining a top-down perspective which ignores organic, indigenous local structures.
Books by Kseniya Oksamytna
United Nations Peace Operations and International Relations Theory, 2020
UN peacekeeping is a core pillar of the multilateral peace and security architecture and a multi-... more UN peacekeeping is a core pillar of the multilateral peace and security architecture and a multi-billion undertaking reshaping lives around the world. In spite of this, the engagement between the literatures on UN peacekeeping and International Relations theory has been a slow development. This has changed in recent years, and there is now a growing interest to examine UN peacekeeping from various theoretical perspectives to yield insights about how international relations are changing and developing. The volume is the first comprehensive overview of multiple theoretical perspectives on UN peacekeeping. There are two main uses of this volume. First, this volume provides the reader with insights into different theoretical lenses and how they practically can be applied to better understand UN peacekeeping. Second, through case studies in each chapter, the volume provides practical examples of how International Relations theories – such as realism, liberal institutionalism, rational choice institutionalism, sociological institutionalism, feminist institutionalism, constructivism, critical security studies, practice theory, and complexity theory – can be applied to a specific policy issue. Applying these theories enhances our understanding of why UN peacekeeping, as an international institution, has evolved in a particular direction and functions the way that it does. The insights generated in the volume can also help shed light on other international institutions as well as the broader issue of international cooperation.
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Papers by Kseniya Oksamytna
Books by Kseniya Oksamytna