Peace in Liberia? Bachelor Thesis in Peace and Development Studies

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Peace in Liberia?

A status quo evaluation of United Nations

peacekeeping five years later.

Bachelor Thesis in Peace and

Development Studies

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Abstract

Discussions about the utility of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping has been ongoing since its emergence in the late 1940s, and scholars have studied different peacekeeping missions from various perspectives. However, there is a gap in the research when it comes to evaluating the state of peace in

countries that has experienced successful UN peacekeeping missions a few years after the mission is finished. The UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia (UNMIL) was deemed a success when it was finished. For that reason, this study investigates the state of peace in Liberia five years after the UN peacekeeping mission handed over all security related responsibilities to the Liberian government in 2016. The state of peace in Liberia today will be analyzed using Johan Galtung’s definition of peace and violence. This study has been conducted as a qualitative desk and case study, and has followed abductive reasoning. The data used in this study have been analyzed through text analysis. Findings shows that the UN indeed succeeded in reaching their goals for the mission. But, when applying Galtung’s definition of peace and violence it is clear that the goals set by the UN can be categorized as

negative peace, which means absence of direct violence. Positive peace however, which means the absence of direct, structural and cultural violence, has not yet been achieved since there is still high levels of corruption and discrimination in the country. The conclusion includes a discussion about whether or not the UN can and/or shall aim for positive peace, or if negative peace is a realistic goal and then hand the process of achieving higher levels of positive peace to the host country, in this case Liberia.

Key words

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Manuela Nilsson for being such a motivating, helpful and supporting mentor through the process of conducting this study. I would also like to thank my family and friends for always supporting and

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List of Abbreviations

CPA Comprehensive Peace Agreement

ECOMOG Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group

GPI Global Peace Index

HDI Human Development Index HRW Human Rights Watch ICC International Criminal Court

INPFL Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia IPE Institute for Economics and Peace

LURD Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy MODEL Movement for Democracy in Liberia

NPFL National Patriotic Front of Liberia UN United Nations

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1 Introduction

1.1 Introduction, Research Problem and Relevance

By the end of World War two in 1945, the United Nations (UN) was established, and the main objective of the organization was to build and preserve peace and security. The concept of peacekeeping arose soon after, in 1948, at the beginning of the Cold War as a means to avoid a new full-scale war. From the beginning, the missions were limited to securing and sustaining ceasefire agreements and supporting countries in their efforts to peacefully end conflicts (United Nations Peacekeeping, 2021a). In 1948, the first UN peacekeeping mission was set up in the Middle East to supervise the ceasefire between Israel and its neighbouring countries (United Nations Peacekeeping, 2021b). As time went by, the conditions of peacekeeping started changing from more of an observing and supporting perspective, and by the end of the Cold War, peacekeeping was involving more hands-on multidimensional missions (Howard and Dayal, 2017). The UN has since the beginning of peacekeeping mandated 70 peacekeeping missions, and of those, there are today 13 missions ongoing (United Nations Peacekeeping, 2021a).

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Although the number of ongoing peacekeeping missions has decreased since the beginning of the 21st century, it does not mean that the UN will not have further challenges and tasks (Hunt, 2017). Peacekeeping missions will continue to be one of the UNs main tasks as conflicts within and between counties still emerge. The extent of the mandates given the peacekeeping missions and the political complexity the missions have to juggle are very broad, but the goals of peacekeeping missions are to support the political processes, engage and assist in disarmament, demobilization and

reintegration of ex-combatants, facilitate democratic electoral processes, assist in reestablishing the rule of law as well as promote and support human rights (United Nations Peacekeeping, 2021a).

The utility of UN peacekeeping missions, whether they are good or bad, successes or failures, helping establish peace or not has been discussed for decades, and the debate is still ongoing. However, there is a research gap when it comes to evaluations of UN peacekeeping missions a few years after the mission is finished and deemed successful. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to contribute to and fill that gap and provide a study that aims to investigate if the UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia (UNMIL) that was deemed successful managed to establish sustainable peace that is still going strong by using Johan Galtung's definition of peace and violence.

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what goals the UN sets for its missions, if those goals are enough, and if the goals set by the UN provides a foundation for long-lasting sustainable peace. Should peacekeeping aim for negative peace, meaning just the absence of direct violence? Or should peacekeeping aim for positive peace, meaning the absence of direct, structural and cultural violence? This study will provide a foundation of discussion of these questions.

1.2 Objective and Research Questions

The objective of this study is to contribute to the debate on the utility of peacekeeping by analyzing the case of the UN peacekeeping mission in Liberia and its long-term effects on the status of peace in the country.

Conducting this study several years after the mission was deemed successful in 2018 will provide an answer to if a successful UN peacekeeping operation can translate into long term sustainable peace. The following research

questions have been identified:

• What were the objectives of the UNMIL and did they succeed according to the UN?

• How is the UNMIL perceived by secondary sources?

• How could peace in Liberia be evaluated today, five years after the UN peacekeeping mission handed over the security related

responsibilities to Liberian authorities?

1.3 Disposition

This thesis is divided into seven chapters including this introduction chapter. Chapter two presents previous research on the debate about UN

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2 Literature Review

2.1 The Debate About United Nations Peacekeeping

As mentioned in the introduction, the UN has mandated 70 peacekeeping missions, and the timeframe and number of peacekeeping operations provide us with a lot of literature on the subject of peacekeeping together with various discussions of what factors provide the foundation for successful missions and vice versa, as well as the utility of peacekeeping as a whole. There have been discussions throughout the years about how effective peacekeeping missions are and why similar missions succeed, and others do not. The UN has during the last few years approved a large number of peacekeeping operations that are mandated under Chapter VII instead of Chapter VI of the UN charter. Chapter VII operations are mandated to use violence on an operational level compared to peacekeeping operations mandated under Chapter VI where violence is only permitted in situations of self-defense (Hunt, 2017). It is argued that this shift in mandated operations is a result of some of the failed UN peacekeeping operations occurring after the Cold War (Tull, 2018). This shift from peacekeepers not having an extensive mandate to use force into having it has blurred the lines between peacekeeping and peace enforcement in certain peacekeeping operations (see e.g., Berdal and Ucko, 2015; Hunt, 2017; Howard and Dayal, 2017; Tull, 2018).

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further by separating the conflicting actors and restricting their movement (Beardsley and Gleditsch, 2015). According to some researchers,

multidimensional peacekeeping operations that are well financed and with a large, well organized troop are the most effective missions and those

missions also manage to compensate for shortcomings that might appear on the local level in the conflict affected area (see e.g., Doyle and Sambanis, 2006; Hegre, Hultman and Nygard, 2019).

What these scholars mentioned above all agree about are three main statements: first, the level of effectiveness a peacekeeping operation can reach is dependent on available resources, the size of the military troops and the level of competence the troop possesses. Second, traditional missions are less effective than multidimensional missions that are powerful and steady. Third, peacekeeping operations are effective when it comes to decreasing casualties in civil war if the operations have the resources mentioned above.

However, others argue that successful outcomes of UN peacekeeping operations are not dependent on troop size and military skills, but rather on how the local cooperation and decision-making functions, how actors manage to bargain with each and if compromises are made between actors. The UN peacekeeping operations seem to have neglected that feature lately to a large extent (da Costa and Karlsrud, 2013). When peacekeeping

operations do not involve and cooperate with local actors, there is a risk it will lose legitimacy in the eyes of the local community. Another important feature is to have national and local staff operating within international organizations, rather than only foreign staff (see e.g., Richmond, 2011; da Costa and Karlsrud, 2013; Leonardsson and Rudd, 2015; Maschietto, 2019). These arguments all suggest that the most important reason if a UN

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Studies are discussing and analyzing whether or not UN peacekeeping operations are contributing to short- or long-lasting peace. Evidence suggests that it is hard to determine since there are many different outcomes (see e.g., Bueno de Mesquita and Downs, 2006; Sambanis, 2008; Steinert and Grimm, 2014; Kenkel and Foley, 2021). There are several missions where the UN has not been able to contribute enough to ensure short term peace, such as South Sudan, Mali, Burundi and the Central African Republic (Kenkel and Foley, 2021). Some presents evidence that shows that most military interventions that are intended to promote democracy, and a democratization process is the ultimate goal, rarely achieve democratization at the end (Bueno de Mesquita and Downs, 2006), while others suggest that UN peacekeeping operations which main focus is democratization have good chances of paving way for democratization (Steinert and Grimm, 2014). Chances of recovering after civil war are higher in countries that have had a UN peacekeeping mission compared to countries that suffer civil war and where the UN does not get involved with peacekeeping missions (Sambanis, 2008).

2.2 United Nations Peacekeeping in Liberia

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reason is to receive money. Transactional sex means women having to perform sexual favours in return for money, gifts or favours (Beber, Gilligan, Guardado and Karim, 2016). Three categories of women engaging in

transactional sex are explained. First, the prostitutes are organized and sold by pimps or likewise (Neudorfer, 2015). Second, women trade sexual favors for money to manage their everyday life, and do not look upon themselves as prostitutes. Third, women start relationships with foreign men or men

connected to international organizations, such as personnel from the UN, to raise their living standards (Neudorfer, 2015).

Another article regarding sexual abuse during the UNMIL goes deeply into how the UN peacekeeping mission failed with keeping children safeguarded from sexual abuse in Liberia (Blakemore, Freedman and Lemay-Hébert, 2019). Stronger structures and processes are needed to hold abusers accountable, as well as the necessity of encouraging the victims to report sexual abuse, and for that to work, accountability for illegal actions must work. There are deep structural issues with how the UN is handling such problems (Blakemore, Freedman and Lemay-Hébert, 2019). Various

solutions to the problems are presented by the scholars. There is a need for a system that will encourage women locally, regionally and internationally to report sexual violence and abuse (Neudorfer, 2015; Blakemore, Freedman and Lemay-Hébert, 2019). In addition to that, a system is needed that, to a greater extent, will hold UN personnel accountable for their actions (Neudorfer, 2015; Blakemore, Freedman and Lemay-Hébert, 2019).

Other case studies that have been made on the peacekeeping mission in Liberia suggest that UNMIL has had a politically positive impact on the country. Local citizens engaging with UN peacekeepers and personnel from other democratic international organizations and actors have made

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Other case studies of Liberia taking a gender approach discuss how the UNMIL has affected local women. How peacekeeping affects economic opportunities positively through agricultural programs, micro-finances, and skills training, employment opportunities, and also how trade increases when peacekeepers purchase goods from the local communities. Negative aspects are increasing transactional sex as mentioned before, which once again suggests a great need for protection and recourses for women in conflict-affected areas (Aning and Edu-Afful, 2013). Another gender-based case study of UNMIL aims to explain two things. First, if women working in peacekeeping operations identify themselves as contributors to making operations more effective, and how locals perceive female peacekeepers contributing to peacekeeping. Results show that the perception female peacekeepers have is that they do contribute to the operation. However, they do not have the opportunities to contribute to their fullest potential, which implies that there are barriers in peacekeeping when it comes to gender (Karim, 2016).

Although there is an extensive amount of literature covering the subject of peacekeeping since the introduction of the concept, most of the literature focuses on the utility of peacekeeping, whether it is good or bad, desirable or not desirable, or specific singular features during a peacekeeping mission, or if peacekeeping is desirable or not because of various outcomes of UN peacekeeping missions. However, whether peacekeeping provides the necessary tools for conflict affected areas to accomplish long-lasting peace rather than short-term peace, how the goals of different UN peacekeeping missions relate to the ultimate goal of ‘keeping peace’ and if those goals are enough, is not discussed in the current literature. This study aims to

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Multiple evaluations and case studies can be found that focus on the UN peacekeeping missions in Liberia, but there is a lack of studies covering how the situation in Liberia is in 2021, several years after the mission was

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3 Theoretical Framework

In order to evaluate what kind of peace Liberia has achieved, it is necessary to, first, present how the UN defines peace and peacekeeping. Second, definitions of peace and measurements of peace will be presented.

3.1 United Nations Definition of Peace and Peacekeeping

There is no specific outlined definition of the concept of peace or peacekeeping within the UN. However, there are guidelines for

peacekeeping, and every peacekeeping mission works under a mandate and is financed differently depending on how big the mission is and what is needed.

The reason for the creation of the United Nation was for it to work towards maintaining peace and security internationally, and to have an organization that has mandates to intervene when threats to peace and security arise. The goals and activities of peacekeeping missions are often similar to the ones of peacebuilding, humanitarian assistance, conflict prevention and peacemaking which makes the definition of peacekeeping overlap with definitions of the other concepts mentioned (Cheng-Hopkins, 2010). Peacekeeping is an activity that can contribute to both prevention of conflict in or between states, and at the same time encourage peacemaking. A peacekeeping mission is a UN presence in a country involving the UN military and/or police force as well as civilian personnel (United Nations General Assembly, 1992). The goal of peacekeeping missions is for them to interrupt and

hamper conflicts and to promote and sustain peace. Successful peacekeeping missions are seen as providing a strong foundation for sustainable

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Successful peacekeeping operations are believed to include an overall motivation to establish and strengthen organizations aiming to consolidate peace in a country and amongst its people. Agreements resulting in peace between conflicting actors includes activities such as the disarmament of the actors involved in the conflict, the revival of order in societies, management of weapons, in some cases even destruction of weapons, recovery of

refugees, support security staff in forms of information and education, assist in monitoring elections, promote actions to protect human rights, assist the government in strengthening and/or reconstructing institutions and encourage political participation (United Nations General Assembly, 1992).

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their given mandate. Impartiality is important for the peacekeeping mission to sustain the given consent from the parties involved in the conflict. Non-use of force except in self-defense and defense of the mandate means that violence is only to be used as a last resort and with the mindset of causing as little damage as possible (United Nations Peacekeeping, 2021e).

The success or failure of peacekeeping is extremely dependent on if political processes are sustainable and if they are actively working towards peace. Peacekeeping is not a replacement for lacking national efforts, and it cannot replace political will to end conflict within the host state or between states, but is rather a system to support national efforts in their work towards peace and stability. UN peacekeeping missions assist in establishing a foundation for conflict affected countries to become more resistant to further conflict or falling back into conflict. Through identifying and scrutinizing the causes of conflict, the foundation for sustainable long-term peace can be laid (United Nations Peacekeeping, 2021f).

3.2 Different Conceptualizations of Peace

3.2.1 Johan Galtungs Definition of Peace and Violence

The Norwegian sociologist and peace researcher Johan Galtung is the creator of the basis of our understanding of peace up to this day. According to Galtung (1964), to conceptualize peace, two terms are needed. One is positive peace, and the other is negative peace (Galtung, 1964). To understand the terms, an explanation of their origins is necessary. The

concept of peace and the concept of violence are closely related, and because of that link Galtung has developed the concept of peace even more as well as developed various classifications of violence (Galtung, 1969). The

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and time violence is out of human control as well and is related to sustainability for generations to come (Galtung, 1996). Because the two categories explained are out of human control, the focus will be placed on the other three categories. Cultural violence is described as violence towards aspects of culture, such as religion, ideology, language and art, as well as empirical and formal science. Cultural violence is an attack on aspects of culture that can validate and encourage structural or direct violence towards cultures (Galtung, 1969). General beliefs of what normally is bad behaviour transform into something generally accepted which creates a platform for structural and/or direct violence (Galtung and Fischer, 2013). Structural violence is described as the structures within any constellation of people, a community, society, country for example, that causes oppression,

exploitation, discrimination or anything that can cause suffering for individuals. Structural violence is often indirect violence since it is rarely performed by one person upon another (Galtung, 1996). Direct violence is any violence that involves verbal violence, hurting and/or killing people. It is performed intentionally and individuals or groups are targets. Direct violence always has an executor and a victim/several victims (Galtung, 1969).

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the future (Galtung and Fischer, 2013). When there is positive peace, individuals have the chance to grow to their full potential (Galtung, 1996).

Negative peace, on the other hand, is exclusively the absence of direct violence. In constellations where there is negative peace, there is some sort of coexistence between the people, however, it is passive and can still sometimes involve violence such as verbal clashes and conflicts between individuals (Galtung and Fischer, 2013). Resolving a conflict only through eradicating direct violence and reaching negative peace, there will still be tension between people and groups which may cause conflict again (Galtung and Fischer, 2013). Peacekeeping may have a goal to reach negative peace as a first step, while positive peace is peace-making and stabilizing

relationships primarily as a whole (Galtung, 1985).

3.2.2 Everyday Peace

MacGiny (2014) explains everyday peace as how individuals and groups behave and operate in everyday life in societies that are or have experienced conflict and are somewhat divided. Based on norms and practices learned over time, individuals and groups make conscious or unconscious decisions of how they act and express themselves in different constellations to avoid conflict. These mechanisms to avoid conflict can be found in any society and they are constantly evolving and are something individuals learn through observation, common sense, making mistakes and learning from them (MacGinty, 2014). Because everyday peace is something that individuals learn over time, it means that everyday peace is something very dependent on existing preconditions and given context (MacGinty, 2014).

Three main conclusions have been drawn from a number of studies

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relating to human rights issues were rarely used to define people's perception of peace. Second, indicators connected to positive peace are more common in societies that experienced conflict and violence further away in time in comparison to societies that experienced conflict and violence closer in time. This conclusion adds to the notion that perceptions in societies are always evolving and are circumstantial. The third conclusion argues that more research is needed on the connection between peacebuilding and the security of citizens (Firchow and MacGinty, 2017). It is important to be careful when measuring political violence, especially when placing an ending date for such measurements. Such perceptions are dynamic and evolving which means certain indicators of peace and safety can be one thing in one society, and one thing in another society. It depends on circumstances (Firchow and MacGinty, 2017).

Everyday peace has, because of its bottom-up perspective, features that national and international top-down approaches may have difficulties identifying and organizing, and can therefore add to the international top-down indicators to provide a complementary way of measuring peace (see e.g., MacGinty, 2014; Firchow and MacGinty, 2017).

3.2.3 Relational Peace

Söderström (et al. 2020) argue that peace should be interpreted as a

relationship between individuals, groups, communities and/or nations, rather than as a process, a situation or an end result (Söderström, Åkebo and Jarstad, 2020). Three features of relational peace are presented by

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Behavioural interaction includes three kinds of behaviours. First there is deliberation, which refers to public engagement in political activities on the basis of non-violence. Deliberation provides a foundation where views and ideas can be exchanged, as well as actors arguing for their

positions(Söderström, Åkebo and Jarstad, 2020). Second there is non-domination, which refers to the idea of being free from domination by an arbitrary power. However, in most relationships there is domination to some extent, but this can also change over time (Söderström, Åkebo and Jarstad, 2020). The third component of behavioural interaction is cooperation. Cooperation means that actors actively need to develop together and work towards mutually complementary goals (Söderström, Åkebo and Jarstad, 2020).

The second feature in relational peace is the subjective attitudes in the relationship. Recognition and trust are two main features of subjective attitudes (Söderström, Åkebo and Jarstad, 2020). First, in a relationship, interactions between actors are needed in order to reach mutual recognition, and recognition can be explained as actors accepting each other's existence. Second, the solidity of a relationship, as well as the level of cooperation, is very much dependent on the level of trust between the actors. Building up the trust in relationships are very important, and is mostly done by solving misunderstandings, reducing discrimination and injusticies, and adjustments in behaviour are often necessary (Söderström, Åkebo and Jarstad, 2020).

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there are likely shared visions between the actors, and there is no competing between them like there can be in a fellow relationship because moral

obligations are involved in friendships to a larger extent (Söderström, Åkebo and Jarstad, 2020).

The three components presented, behavioral interaction, subjective attitudes towards each other, and the understanding of the relationship between the actors, with their under categories explain what relational peace is and consists of. Each of the components can boost the others, and they all can be applied on different kinds of relationships, as well as each one of the

components can be present to different extents (Söderström, Åkebo and Jarstad, 2020).

3.3 The Definition of Peace Used by This Study

According to Firchow and MacGinty, in order to measure everyday peace correctly, the proper way of doing it would be conducting a field study, doing interviews and handing out questionnaires, for this case to local people in one or more communities in Liberia to see what their perception of peace is. That is not a possibility because of the current situation in the world with an ongoing pandemic. Measuring relational peace is not an option in this study either since it focuses on investigating relationships between actors, which is not the objective of this study.

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study will therefore use Galtung's theoretical framework for peace and violence as a lens through which to analyze the UN definition of

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4 Methodology

This chapter describes and justifies the methodological framework that was used to conduct this study, as well as the reasoning for the chosen sources and the case used. Limitations and delimitations will also be presented. Describing the course of action for the study, the type of sources that will be used and how the data the study is based on have been collected increases the reliability of the study.

4.1 Qualitative Desk Study

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4.2 Abductive Reasoning

Compared to an inductive approach which is theory building, or a deductive approach which starts with a theory and builds from it with an aim to

criticize, confirm, modify or develop it, an abductive approach uses a theory as a lens through which to analyze and interpret society or the case that is being studied (Bryman, 2016). Abductive reasoning is a way of contributing with a new understanding to the phenomenon that is studied, and it provides a conclusion that is built on one or multiple observations (Bryman, 2016). It is of great interest to use the abductive approach if the research aims to understand how events and discourses can affect a system or a context. Abductive reasoning will be used in this study because of its relevance when conducting case studies since it has the ability to provide deeper

understanding to cases and events (Bryman, 2016).

4.3 Case Study

This study is based on a single case study, where the UNMIL is being studied. A case study is a scientific method where a specific event or phenomenon is studied in-depth, and there can be studies where only one single case is studied, or there can be multiple cases studied within a case study (Bryman, 2016). When conducting a case study which aims to

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is maintained in a country several years after a peacekeeping mission was finished and deemed successful. Therefore, a single case study is the most suitable method for this study. It will be an in-depth study of the UN

peacekeeping mission and the case strategically chosen is Liberia because the country meets the criterias of the objective of this study. The UN recently finished their peacekeeping mission, UNMIL, in Liberia and the mission was deemed successful. Based on UNMIL being a, according to the UN,

successful mission it is relevant to evaluate the state of peace in the country as of today to investigate if it is still possible to call the mission successful.

4.4 Text Analysis

Text analysis refers to the process of analyzing various sorts of texts that the researcher then extracts valuable information from and then transforms into qualitative data that is useful for the study. This is a commonly used method in social science research (Bryman, 2016). It is of great importance to investigate the UNMIL and the goals the mission worked by, and what kind of peace the UN aimed to reach with the mission it is important to in order to come to a conclusion of what kind of peace was reached in Liberia. This investigation is made through searching for information regarding this in various sources of written information, which in this study was done through text analysis.

4.5 Sources and Validity

The data used in this study is based on multiple different secondary sources. When researchers use secondary sources, there needs to be an awareness of the possibility of shortcomings, as for example the limitation of control of the quality of the data that is being used. It is also important to be aware of who the editor and publisher of the data is, because there is a risk of

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validity of the study (Creswell and Creswell, 2018), which in this study is done through using extensive literature that includes different sources from different institutions, databases, international organizations and such. The main sources used in this study are annual reports, documents, and articles collected primarily from the UN, with the purpose of using the UN as a source to investigate what their goals and objectives with the UNMIL was, and how they define peace. The Global Peace Index, the Human

Development Index, Freedom House,Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Transparency International are other international sources with various databases that describe humanitarian, political, and social situations in countries all over the world. These sources are used to investigate what kind of peace Liberia has achieved from other perspectives rather than just the UN perspective of peace and successful peacekeeping operations.

4.6 Limitations and Delimitations

Limitations of this study include the accessibility of information regarding the quality of peace today in Liberia, as well as quality of the data collected. Lack of accessible information is firstly because the most recent progress report made by the UN on Liberia was done in 2018, and things might have changed since then up until now. When it comes to the quality of the data, when gathered from organizations it can be biased. However, this study includes several different sources of data which, as mentioned earlier, ensures the validity of the study which means this should not be an issue. A third limitation is that there might be sources of information that are

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Delimitations of this study is, first, that I have chosen to only investigate one UN peacekeeping operation in one country, in order to be able to do an in-depth analysis that is manageable with the time frame given for this study. Second, since it is a single case study, it will not be representative of all peacekeeping operations by the UN. For that reason, it is important to

emphasize that no general conclusions shall be drawn from the results of this study. However, this study will highlight the definitions of peace and if and how different international actors view peace differently, and what the consequences of that might be.

4.7 Ethical Considerations

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5 Findings

5.1 Background Liberia

Liberia has experienced multiple cycles of violence, with the first civil war lasting between 1989 and 1996. The country had a few years of peace between 1996 and 1999, although the peace was considered to be very fragile. Civil war broke out again in 1999 and lasted until 2003 (Nilsson, 2009).

5.1.1 Conflict Background

Liberia was founded in 1822, and due to the transportation and replacement of American slaves to Liberia, it became an American colony in Africa (Dennis, 2006). In 1847 Liberia achieved independence with support from an American organization named the American Colonization society. The freed slaves that had arrived in Liberia, also known as Americo-Liberians, took control over the political, economic, and social arenas and their descendants remained in control for over 100 years. During this time, the distribution of power was extremely uneven, which would later be one of the core reasons for later conflicts (Dennis, 2006). However, Samuel Doe became the leader of Liberia after overthrowing the American-Liberian oligarchy in 1980 after a staged coup. Doe developed Liberia into a military dictatorship and

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Before the UN got the mandate for a peacekeeping operation in Liberia in 2003, other organisations had already tried to establish peace. In 1990, a few months after the NPFL entered Liberia, theEconomic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) entered with a peacekeeping mandate (UNMIL, 2021a). Countries involved in ECOMOG were Guinea, Benin, Togo, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal, although not all of those nations were involved in the mission in Liberia (UNMIL, 2021b). However, what was meant to be a peacekeeping mission soon turned into an enforcement mission after the group suffered casualties caused by attacks by the NPFL (Nilsson, 2009). Later the same year Samuel Doe was captured and killed by the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL) which was a fraction of the NPLF that had been created during the ongoing conflict (Olcay and Bayram, 2020). Various attempts to establish interim governments capable of controlling the country were made during the war but without any success. Other smaller rebel groups developed as well as the war went on causing the conflict to intensify heavily (Nilsson, 2009).

5.1.2 Cease-fire Agreement

In 1995 a cease-fire was agreed upon by all combating actors in the conflict, this agreement was the Abuja I peace agreement. The Abuja I peace

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the task was given to the person who had won the first presidential election in Liberia post-conflict in 1997, which was Charles Taylor (Nilsson, 2009). There were around 500 international observers monitoring the 1997 election in Liberia, and although the organization of the election and electoral rules was agreed upon by all political parties involved, it was clear that it was in Taylor’s favour (Harris, 1999). Instead of building a security sector

benefitting Liberia as a country, he established a security sector for himself in order to constrain the population and promote his personal interests. This led to Taylor going after the opposition, attempting to eradicate any political opposition in the country. Many people were arrested, incarcerated,

murdered or had to leave Liberia and go into exile (Nilsson, 2009).

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which stalled the negotiations for a long time. Finally, after realizing the big pressure from the international community together with the decreasing power of the state army, Taylor stepped down leaving the power in the hands of Vice-President Moses Blah (Olcay and Bayram, 2020). Taylor moved from Liberia and went to exile in Nigeria (Khalfan, 2020), and was later sought after by the International Criminal Court (Gell and H. Sandler Fellow, 2012). In 2012 he was convicted for crimes committed by Taylor in Sierra Leone including crimes against humanity, terrorism and war crimes, and he was sentenced to 50 years in jail (Gell and H. Sandler Fellow, 2012). The Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was finally signed in Accra on August 18 in 2003 (UNMIL, 2021a).

5.1.3 The Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement (2003)

What characterized the Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was the inclusiveness in it since representatives from the civil society as well as political parties were involved in the negotiations together with the three main actors, namely the Liberian government, LURD and MODEL (Nilsson, 2009). The main features of the CPA were first that it affirmed the ceasefire agreement that had been set in June 2003 by the three parties involved. A National Transitional Government of Liberia (NTGL) was to be established together with a National Transitional Legislative Assembly (NTLA), which was another central part of the CPA. The transitional government was established to be inclusive, including members from the political parties and the civil society as chairman and vice-chairman, while 21 ministries were to be divided between all the involved actors. Information regarding the division in the transitional government means that the former rebel groups dominated both the NTGL and the NTLA. However, the division of

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a distribution of 76 seats amongst all involved actors and the 15 counties in Liberia were also included (Nilsson, 2009).

Another important feature of the CPA was the decision that elections were to be held in two years, October 2005. One of the most important parts of the agreement, to establish and secure peace in Liberia, was the request to have the UN assist in that matter. In the agreement, there is a specific request for a United Nations Chapter VII peacekeeping force to join the work of

stabilizing Liberia through supervising the ceasefire and supporting the realization of a peace process in the country (Khalfan, 2020). The United Nations Security Council created the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), a multidimensional peacekeeping mission that was established in Liberia in 2003, to meet the request of a UN Chapter VII force in the CPA. The ultimate goal of the UNMIL was to establish stability and security so that the implementation of the CPA could be fulfilled (Khalfan, 2020). However, one thing about the CPA that stands out is that there was a

scheduled timeline for when implementations of specific provisions were to start, but there was only a small number of those that had set deadlines. Of course, there are several important features in the CPA in addition to those mentioned above, such as the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), a Government Reform Commission (GRC), the return of refugees, electoral reforms, human rights issues and many more (Nilsson, 2009).

5.2 The United Nations Mission in Liberia: A Successful Mission

This section will answer my first research question “What were the objectives of the UNMIL and did they succeed according to the UN?”.

5.2.1 The UN Mission Objectives

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support and monitor the CPA signed earlier that year, and develop a

Disarmament, Demobilization, Rehabilitation and Reintegration action plan for former combatants, as well as collecting and eradicate weapons (UNSC Resolution 1509, 2003). Second, to protect UN personnel and UN facilities, provide protection for civilians who are experiencing threats, and make sure that the freedom of movement is established and maintained (UNSC

Resolution 1509, 2003). Third, the UNMIL will be supportive of

Humanitarian assistance as well as of Human Rights assistance, and place extra emphasis on vulnerable groups such as internally displaced people, refugees, women and children (UNSC Resolution 1509, 2003). Fourth, the UNMIL will support the reforms and reconstruction of the security sector which will include the development of a civilian police training programme or assisting the training of the civilian police force, and to construct a new national army (UNSC Resolution 1509, 2003). The fifth main task was to assist in the peace process and support the implementation of it. This includes the re-establishment of national authorities around the country, developing a new structural framework for the national legal system as well as the judicial system, and supporting the preparations of upcoming national elections in the country (UNSC Resolution 1509, 2003).

5.2.2 Mission Successes

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In the final progress report of the Secretary-General on the UNMIL in April 2018, major developments are presented as well as challenges. The

democratic election in Liberia in 2017 is highlighted as a great success, although minor incidents between groups of different interests and allegations of fraud occurred (United Nations Security Council, 2018). However, the election is overall judged as free and fair which marks a big sign of democratic consolidation in Liberia. Limited progress has been made when it comes to achieving the objectives made of reconciliation in the country mostly due to delays in legislation and lack of funding. However, some donor-funded reconciliation activities have been more successful, such as prevention of conflict during the political election and the encouragement of youth participation in political activities and civil society (United Nations Security Council, 2018).

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Organization supported the country to strengthen its ability to respond to such crises. One challenge highlighted in the report is the violations against human rights. Gender based violence, sexual assaults, rapes, female genital mutilations and such crimes had high rates in 2018, where women and children are the majority of the victims. Societal and cultural factors, as well as inefficiency within the criminal justice system are identified as reasons for such ongoing violations. Finally, Libera is struggling with economic

development and experiencing high levels of corruption which affects the Liberian people (United Nations Security Council, 2018).

5.2.3 Outstanding Tasks for Liberia

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5.3 Secondary Literature on the United Nations Mission in Liberia

By also investigating how secondary literature sees the outcome of the UNMIL it is possible to triangulate the information gathered from the UN themselves. There is not an extensive number of evaluations available that investigates the successes and failures of the UNMIL. However, sources mainly agree with the UN that the mission was a success overall. However, based on existing reports evaluating the situation in Liberia after the UNMIL left it is possible to say that the UNMIL could have accomplished greater security for civilians, especially women and children (see e.g., Bargués-Pedreny and Martin de Almagro, 2019; Olcay and Bayram, 2020; Karim, 2020). There are also reports of removals of leaders within the Liberian National Police in order for political leaders to replace them with regime friendly substitutes. In addition to that, reports of a formation of new security forces containing regime friendly followers as well, which is extremely worrisome (Karim, 2020). Activities like these were all under control through the monitoring capacity the peacekeeping mission held. Since the end of the UNMIL it has been the responsibility of the Liberian state to make sure to check and review so that such activities do not exist (Karim, 2020). UNMIL has put a lot of effort into establishing new reforms, norms and systems to keep the security in Liberia and prevent gender-based problems overall. However, the most apparent problem brought up by scholars is that the UNMIL has failed to protect women and children from gender-based violence, mostly rape and sexual abuse (Bargués-Pedreny and Martin de Almagro, 2019; Olcay and Bayram, 2020).

5.4 Measuring Liberia’s Peace Today

5.4.1 Global Peace Index Measurement

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countries and provinces, using 23 indicators to do so which are both qualitative and quantitative. In their annual reports that have been released since 2009, there is a presentation of a country’s peacefulness in three categories (Institute for Economics & Peace, 2020). These categories are, first, the levels of safety and security in societies which includes indicators measuring things such as crime rates, violent demonstrations, terrorism activity in the country, how the relationships are with neighboring countries, the number of refugees and internally displaced people, and what the

political situation looks like. Second, if and to what extent there is ongoing conflict in the country and internationally. Third, the scale of a country’s militarization. Through this, it is possible to detect different trends in peace and what measures should be taken to create peaceful societies, as well as the economic results of peace and conflict. The GPI is measuring peace at a macro level, using various data sources as well as statistical analysis

(Institute for Economics & Peace, 2020). Examples of indicators used by the GPI are; weapon imports, weapon exports, deaths of internal conflict, deaths from external conflict, terrorism impact, access to small arms, nuclear and heavy weapons, armed service personnel rate, violent crime and more (Institute for Economics & Peace, 2020).

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fifth is very low levels of peacefulness. There is also a category for countries not included (Institute for Economics & Peace, 2020).

In the first report published by the GPI in 2009, Liberia is placed in category two which is a high level of peacefulness. Although there are high levels of perceived criminality in the society, high levels of access to weapons, some violent demonstrations and crimes, including political instability, most of the indicators used in the measurement shows low rates of security and safety related issues (Vision of Humanity, 2021). By 2016, when the UNMIL handed over all security related responsibilities to the Liberian authorities, Liberia had increased its peacefulness even more according to the GPI when evaluating the indicators used. However, the country was still experiencing high levels of perceived criminality in the society, as well as easy access to weapons, violent demonstrations and political instability and placed in category two, which is high peacefulness (Vision of Humanity, 2021). In the 2020 GPI report, Liberia had increased its peacefulness further, although still in the same category as previous years, category two, high peacefulness (Institute for Economics & Peace, 2020).

5.4.2 Human Development Index

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ranking with the highest human development, to 189 which is the worst ranking which means the least human development. The numbers of

countries included in the ranking has changed over time, but as of 2020 there are 189 countries included (Human Development Reports, 2021).

It is not until the 2009 HDI report that Liberia receives a ranking on the country list, and the ranking is 169 which indicates a low human

development status (Klugman, 2009). In the 2016 HDI report, Liberia

received the ranking 177 (Jahan, 2016), which is quite a drop since 2009 and interesting since the UNMIL was finished in 2016 on the basis of it having been a successful peacekeeping mission. Reasons for that drop can,

according to HDI, depend on natural disasters, climate change, violence and pandemics. The Ebola outbreak in 2014 resulted in hundreds of thousands of children lacking proper education for months because schools were closed, which negatively affected human development in the country (Jahan, 2016). The 2020 HDI report ranked Liberia as the 175th worst country when it comes to human development (United Nations Development Programme, 2020), which is a small increase compared to 2016.

5.4.3 Freedom House

As a politically unbound and independent organization Freedom House is through their analysis, their advocacy and support trying to empower people around the world to exercise their fundamental rights (Freedom House, 2021a). The core belief of Freedom House is that in countries with a

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Results presented in the “Freedom in the World” report is then placed in a democracy index, where all countries are ranked based on measures ranges on a scale from 1 to 7, where 1 to 2,5 points ranks as “Free” which is the most democratic, 3 to 5 points ranks as “Partly free” which are hybrid regimes, and 5,5 to 7 points ranks as “Not free” which is autocracies (Freedom House, 2021c).

In the 2004 Freedom in the World report book, presenting results based on 2003 which was the year where the UNMIL was implemented, Liberia was ranked as not free with political rights and civil rights both lying on a 6 each (Piano and Puddington, 2004). In the 2017 Freedom in the World report, presenting results based on 2016, Liberia is ranked as partly free with political rights scoring 3 and civil liberties 4 (Puddington and Roylance, 2017), which indicates progress made in the country during the UNMIL.

In the latest Freedom in the World report published in 2020, presenting results based on 2019, Liberia is ranked as partly free with a score of 60, and political rights 27 and civil liberties 33. Since the end of the civil war in 2003 Liberia has experienced a process of peacebuilding and stability that has lasted over a decade (Freedom House, 2021b). Freedom House maintains that progress has been achieved in many areas, such as improving the government capacity, reintroducing and establishing the rule of law, protecting and promoting political rights and civil liberties in the country. However, although progress has been made, there are still serious problems with high corruption levels in the country, gender-based violence where women suffer, and discrimination against the LGBTQ community (Freedom House, 2021b).

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and dedicated to preventing it, they lack the resources necessary to do so. The outcome is therefore that corruption remains widespread and faces little resistance. Unfortunately, the police force falls into the category of corrupt institutions, and although the security in Liberia has improved since the end of the war in 2003, the police still lack financial means to be able to protect the people in Liberia (Freedom House, 2021b). Second, although the

Liberian constitution promotes the freedom of speech and freedom of press, the media in Liberia is not free and independent. Journalists have witnessed that they have received threats from government officials, attacks on media stations have occurred as well as theft of media equipment. In addition to that, media licenses have been suspended on vague grounds and many point to the government basing the suspensions on the media stations being too critical (Freedom House, 2021b). Third, the right to freedom of assembly has declined mainly due to governmental control and blocking of social media in relation to mass-meetings in order to block the information flow, basing their choice on the meetings being a “security issue” (Freedom House, 2021b). Fourth, there is a decrease in the independence of the judiciary. The Liberian constitution declares an independent judiciary, but in reality, it is hampered by the widespread corruption, political involvement, and lack of financing. Personnel within the judiciary has been removed because of the government not agreeing with court outcomes, and old personnel has been replaced by people chosen by the top politicians. In addition to this, arbitrary arrests occurred, as well as bribes to judges to prosecute criminals to their advantage or disadvantage. Individuals also risk spending more time in pretrial

detention for crimes committed than the actual jail time would have been because the system works so badly and slow, and the conditions in the prisons are very bad (Freedom House, 2021b). Fifth, there is a stigmatization of minority groups in Liberia including ethnic groups and Muslims, meaning these groups are “outsiders”. The LGBT community are extremely

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relationships with people of the same sex can result in prison. In the political sphere it is clear that no one supports same-sex relationships and marriage (Freedom House, 2021b).

Last but not least, when it comes to personal autonomy and individual rights Liberia still has work to do. There are still ongoing conflicts regarding land rights, especially since the displacement of so many Liberian citizens during the civil war. There are also conflicts regarding foreign access to land in Liberia for the access to mines, timber and palm oil. Women are suffering from disadvantages in the legislation regarding access to land, preventing them from gaining access to it which builds on to the gender-based inequalities in the country (Freedom House, 2021b). By law, men and women enjoy the same rights, but in practice that is not the case. Women are victims of violence and sexual abuse, children as well, which is a widespread problem in Liberia. As recently as in 2017 the Senate proposed that rape would be a bailable crime, which was voted through. However, that decision caused protests amongst women and women's rights activists, and as of 2019 it is still a non-bailable crime. In 2019, the Domestic Violence Act was signed into law, which mandates harder punishments for perpetrators convicted of domestic violence. However, the law does not include regulation regarding female genital mutilation which is a widespread problem in the country (Freedom House, 2021b).

5.4.4 Transparency International

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where, and how much. The public life requires full transparency in order for corruption to stop, which is what Transparency International strongly promotes and aims for (Transparency International, 2021a).

Transparency International defines corruption as “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain”, and suggests that corruption undermines democracy, exploits trust to benefit certain individuals, prevents economic development which leads to aggravated inequalities and poverty (Transparency

International, 2021b). There are many ways corruption can be performed, for instance public officials insist on getting money in return for public services, or public officials exploiting public money in favour for family, friends, or others in their view of meaningful relationships. Corruption is not limited to a certain arena or a certain job, it can occur anywhere- in the government, in the private sector, in the media, in institutions, and so on- and by anyone (Transparency International, 2021b). Corruption is often hidden and happens in the shadows of life, which is why it is hard to detect. Corruption

commonly affects people's political freedom and the rule of law negatively, it destroys public trust in the government and chances of a sustainable future and healthy environment, as well as it hinders individuals' possibility to economically grow (Transparency International, 2021b). Transparency International measures perceptions of corruption in around 180 countries and territories based on experts and business people presenting their experiences of corruption in the public sector, which then is presented as the CPI

(Corruption Perception Index). The ranking of countries runs from 0 which is the worst ranking meaning extremely corrupt, to 100 which is the best

meaning no corruption at all (Transparency International, 2021c).

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the latest ranking, in 2020, Liberia has dropped in ranking from 90 all the way down to 137 out of 180 countries in the list at that time, with a score of 28 which is extremely low and indicates even higher levels of corruption compared to the year when UNMIL was finished (Transparency

International, 2021e).

5.4.5 Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International

Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an independent, non-political international organization that investigates and informs the international community about abuses occurring around the world (Human Rights Watch, 2021a). The goal of the organization is to protect all citizens on the globe who are at risk of abuse, aiming their advocacy towards governments, businesses,

organizations, and armed groups within countries to achieve changes in legislation and policies. One part of the work of HRW is producing and presenting annual reports, covering disturbing events and abuse in over 100 countries in order to spread awareness and aims to bring justice to victims of abuse and hold abusers accountable for their actions (Human Rights Watch, 2021a). Although Liberia is not presented in the HRW World reports neither in the 2003 report, 2016 report nor the latest published in 2021, other articles have been published highlighting trends in Liberia.

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report to the United Nations Human Committee in July 2020 regarding the planned establishment of a war crimes court to reach a process of holding war crimes offenders accountable (Human Rights Watch, 2021b). However, no report regarding that has been presented by the Liberian government so far. and there have been reports of an increasing number of harassment and threats targeting witnesses of war crimes as well as activists (Human Rights Watch, 2021b). According to international law, states are obligated to prosecute people who have committed serious crimes such as war crimes (Keppler, 2021). By doing so, the government provides justice to the victims at the same time as they are fighting impunity. The people of Liberia have shown their full support for a creation of a war crimes court, which is also a reason for the government to actually realize it. Liberia should, with the help of the UN, create a war crimes court in accordance with international

standards to provide the justice needed for victims (Keppler, 2021), and provide protection for activists and war crimes witnesses (Human Rights Watch, 2021b).

Amnesty International is a politically independent international organization, campaigning for human rights and accountability all around the world (Amnesty International, 2021a). Some of the subjects that Amnesty International is working with are armed conflicts, climate change, international justice, freedom of expression, fighting death penalties and torture (Amnesty International, 2021b). Amnesty International publishes news regarding all subjects, as well as an annual report that includes around 150 countries, in which the status of human rights in each country is

presented (Amnesty International, 2021c). Amnesty International, like HRW, does not present the situation in Liberia in any of their annual reports,

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6 Analysis

Based on the findings, this chapter evaluates if there is peace in Liberia today according to Galtung's theory of peace and violence. This will be done by using Johan Galtung's definition of peace and violence, namely direct

violence, structural violence and cultural violence and see if there is negative or positive peace in the country. Starting with evaluating if there is negative peace by using the presented information collected from the Global Peace Index, and then move on to the question if and to what extent there is positive peace in Liberia based on the data provided by the Human Development Index, Freedom House, Transparency International, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

6.1 Following Galtung’s Definition, is there Negative Peace in Liberia?

6.1.1 Absence of Violence

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presented by the GPI, and Galtung's definition of negative peace, it is possible to reach the conclusion that Liberia has reached their goal of establishing negative peace.

6.2 Following Galtung’s Definition, is there Positive Peace in Liberia?

Positive peace is, according to Galtung, the absence of direct, structural and cultural violence. In the section above, negative peace is discussed which covers direct violence, and in this section structural and cultural violence will be analyzed. In countries and societies experiencing positive peace, people have the ability to grow into and explore their full potential, live together in harmony, cooperate with each other and have processed and moved past traumatic experiences that may have occurred (see e.g., Galtung 1996; Galtung and Fisher, 2013). The findings show that Liberia is experiencing multiple issues related to structural and cultural violence, and this section analyzes how Liberia is experiencing the two types of violence based on the findings presented above.

6.2.1 Structural Violence

The findings drawn from the HDI in 2020 show that the level of human development in Liberia is unstable, and Liberia is ranked as the 175th worst country out of 189 (United Nations Development Programme, 2020). Since the HDI ranks the countries based on access to resources, knowledge, having long and healthy lives, possibilities to explore creativeness, and gross

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shows that not much progress has been made. These findings can be placed under Galtung’s category of structural violence, since structural violence is explained as indirect violence, which means it is not caused by one specific person upon another, it is rather embedded in a system that discriminates against the rights of individuals being able to develop into their full potential.

A democratic political system where citizens experience political freedom and civil rights, and a government that is accountable for its citizens is the key to a free and thriving country according to the Freedom House. Liberia has, as presented in the findings chapter, experienced progress since 2003, the end of the civil war, until 2016 when the UNMIL was finished. However, the 2020 Freedom in the World Report informs the reader that Liberia is experiencing serious problems in multiple areas that fall into the category of both structural and cultural violence. Freedom House reports high levels of widespread corruption in Liberia, which includes governmental institutions that are founded to protect the rights of civilians such as the police and judiciary. The media in the country are not free and independent and journalists have been victims of harassment and attacks, and freedom on social media has also decreased because of wider government control in order to block information flows. These are undeniable indicators of structural violence in terms of exploitation, oppression and discrimination.

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security related responsibilities to the Liberian authorities in 2016. Increasing corruption means increasing levels of economic inequalities and major overall inequalities in individuals' possibilities to develop which goes hand in hand with Galtung's definition of structural violence because corruption is direct exploitation of individuals, and causes economic discrimination and oppression and the government allows it to occur and increase.

The information collected through HRW and Amnesty International

collectively highlights the absence of accountability for past war crimes, and the Liberian government's apparent unwillingness to take responsibility and create a war crimes court and press charges against perpetrators that have committed war crimes. According to international standards of human rights, the Liberian government must hold perpetrators of war crimes accountable, and it should lay in the Liberian government's interest to fight impunity and bring justice to victims. However, despite international recommendations, this does not seem to be the case in Liberia. This category therefore also falls into Galtung's definition of structural violence since it discriminates against victims of serious crimes, it discriminates against people actively promoting impunity, it causes oppression since victims and witnesses of war crimes are harassed and threatened, and it causes great suffering for Liberian citizens. The Liberian government has gotten the Liberian citizens' support for a war crimes court, and yet they ignore it and prevent this crucial process from happening. In order to reach positive peace, Galtung emphasizes the importance of a country or community to collectively process past

experiences in order for future conflicts to be avoided, which is something the Liberian government is failing tremendously in providing for its citizens.

6.2.2 Cultural Violence

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corruption one perceives, individuals may become victims of corruption to a larger extent based on cultural factors. In addition to corruption as an

indicator of cultural violence, Freedom House presents information showing that minority groups, such as ethnic groups and religious groups, are exposed to discrimination and violence based on the fact that they belong to different religions and ethnicities which increases the inequalities in the country. Women are also exposed to inequalities and high rates of gender-based abuse such as sexual violence and widespread genital mutilation. These are clear indicators of both cultural violence and structural violence. Increasing corruption means increasing levels of economic inequalities and major overall inequalities in individuals' possibilities to develop which goes hand in hand with Galtung's definition of structural and cultural violence.

6.3 Summary of Analysis

As the findings have shown, the UN was pushing towards negative peace and achieved it, and the mission also functioned as a system to support the

Liberian government in their efforts to establish peace and stability. UNMIL has given Liberia a lot of tools to keep progressing in their peace process, but Liberia has not done that to the extent that they could have.

To answer the second research question “How is the UNMIL perceived by secondary sources?”, it is safe to say that secondary sources provide information that note a positive trend since the beginning of the UNMIL in 2003. The direct violence in Liberia has decreased tremendously, and a democratic election has successfully been held. However, the sources used in this study have also presented information that describes challenges the country has to keep working on. The biggest challenges are high levels of corruption, gender-based violence, discrimination and media restrictions.

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7 Conclusion

As the study shows, the goals of the mission set by the UN were aiming towards establishing negative peace. Negative peace was achieved as presented by the UN themselves as well as data collected from the GPI, which makes the UNMIL a successful mission in relation to the goals set for the mission. According to Johan Galtung's definition of peace and violence, Liberia has achieved negative peace. The UN makes it clear that the mission in Liberia was there to stabilize the security situation, and to support the Liberian government in the process of reaching peace. The objective of the UNMIL can be interpreted as short-term solutions, and the mission never had the objectives to reach positive peace, although they encouraged Liberia to keep striving for higher levels of structural and cultural peace beyond absence of violence. Furthermore, the findings presented show that Liberia has not reached positive peace according to the definition presented by Galtung. There are still deep issues connected to both structural and cultural violence, and some of the issues have even increased since the UNMIL was finished.

The question that lingers after this investigation is if UN peacekeeping missions could, or even should, ever achieve anything more advanced than negative peace. If one takes a closer look, many members of the UN engaged in peacekeeping missions have not fulfilled all requirements Galtung

ascribed to positive peace in their own countries and communities either, which makes it questionable if the UN has what it takes to push for positive peace to be achieved in other countries and communities.

Furthermore, should the international community aim to establish positive peace in other countries and communities, or is the process of achieving positive peace something that the host county has to do themselves?