The United Nations in Cambodia and El Salvador: Promoter of peace or accessory to revolution?

Under the right conditions, flawed U.N. interventions can actually help to increase the potential for revolution. Looking at relatively homogeneous nation-states in particular, this revolutionary potential is highest when there is a conjuncture of the following elements: crisis of state resources, elite alienation and division, mass mobilization potential and an effective revolutionary movement. In countries with rigid and underdeveloped political and economic institutions, fundamental and rapid forces of change can accelerate the society toward this revolutionary situation (i.e. conjuncture of elements). The findings of this thesis suggest that a large-scale U.N. peacekeeping operation, improperly conceived and implemented, can become such a force of revolutionary conjuncture. This is especially true with missions that exhibit the following characteristics: (1) poorly trained personnel; (2) inappropriate national contingents; (3) deployment delays; (4) poor mandate enforcement; (5) large-scale misconduct of personnel; (6) compromised neutrality; and (7) ineffective command and control capabilities. These conclusions are developed through a comparison, between March 1992 and March 1993, of U.N. peacekeeping missions and the two state-focused elements of a revolutionary situation--crisis of state resources and elite alienation and division--within El Salvador and Cambodia. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)Dept. of History, Philosophy, and Political Science. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1993 .W449. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 32-06, page: 1562. Adviser: David Wurfel. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1993