TY  - THES
A1  - Lange, Anne
T1  - On a small scale
BT  - how micro relations facilitate cooperation in peacekeeping interventions
N2  - This study argues that micro relations matter in peacekeeping. Asking what makes the implementation of peacekeeping interventions complex and how complexity is resolved, I find that formal, contractual mechanisms only rarely effectively reduce complexity – and that micro relations fill this gap. Micro relations are personal relationships resulting from frequent face-to-face interaction in professional and – equally importantly – social contexts.
This study offers an explanation as to why micro relations are important for coping with complexity, in the form of a causal mechanism. For this purpose, I bring together theoretical and empirical knowledge: I draw upon the current debate on ‘institutional complexity’ (Greenwood et al. 2011) in organizational institutionalism as well as original empirical evidence from a within-case study of the peacekeeping intervention in Haiti, gained in ten weeks of field research. In this study, scholarship on institutional complexity serves to identify theoretical causal channels which guide empirical analysis. An additional, secondary aim is pursued with this mechanism-centered approach: testing the utility of Beach and Pedersen’s (2013) theory-testing process tracing.
Regarding the first research question – what makes the implementation of peacekeeping interventions complex –, the central finding is that complexity manifests itself in the dual role of organizations as cooperation partners and competitors for (scarce) resources, turf and influence. UN organizations, donor agencies and international NGOs implementing peacekeeping activities in post-conflict environments have chronic difficulty mastering both roles because they entail contradictory demands: effective cooperation requires information exchange, resource and responsibility-sharing as well as external scrutiny, whereas prevailing over competitors demands that organizations conceal information, guard resources, increase relative turf and influence, as well as shield themselves from scrutiny. Competition fuels organizational distrust and friction – and impedes cooperation.
How is this complexity resolved? The answer to this second research question is that deep-seated organizational competition is routinely mediated – and cooperation motivated – in micro relations and micro interaction. Regular, frequent face-to-face interaction between individual organizational members generates social resources that help to transcend organizational distrust and conflict, most importantly familiarity with each other, personal trust and belief in reciprocity. Furthermore, informal conflict mediation and control mechanisms – namely, open discussion, mutual monitoring in direct interaction and social exclusion – enhance solidarity and mutual support.
KW  - peacekeeping
KW  - Friedenssicherung
KW  - Haiti
KW  - Haiti
KW  - institutional complexity
KW  - Institutionelle Komplexität
KW  - United Nations
KW  - Vereinte Nationen
KW  - process tracing
KW  - Prozessanalyse
Y1  - 2018
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Gorum, Tolga
A1  - van Westen, Cees J.
A1  - Korup, Oliver
A1  - van der Meijde, Mark
A1  - Fan, Xuanmei
A1  - van der Meer, Freek D.
T1  - Complex rupture mechanism and topography control symmetry of
 mass-wasting pattern, 2010 Haiti earthquake
JF  - GEOMORPHOLOGY
N2  - The 12 January 2010 M-w 7.0 Haiti earthquake occurred in a complex deformation zone at the boundary between the North American and Caribbean plates. Combined geodetic, geological and seismological data posited that surface deformation was driven by rupture on the Leogane blind thrust fault, while part of the rupture occurred as deep lateral slip on the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault (EPGF). The earthquake triggered >4490 landslides, mainly shallow, disrupted rock falls, debris-soil falls and slides, and a few lateral spreads, over an area of similar to 2150 km(2). The regional distribution of these slope failures defies those of most similar earthquake-triggered landslide episodes reported previously. Most of the coseismic landslides did not proliferate in the hanging wall of the main rupture, but clustered instead at the junction of the blind Leogane and EPGF ruptures, where topographic relief and hillslope steepness are above average. Also, low-relief areas subjected to high coseismic uplift were prone to lesser hanging wall slope instability than previous studies would suggest. We argue that a combined effect of complex rupture dynamics and topography primarily control this previously rarely documented landslide pattern. Compared to recent thrust fault-earthquakes of similar magnitudes elsewhere, we conclude that lower static stress drop, mean fault displacement, and blind ruptures of the 2010 Haiti earthquake resulted in fewer, smaller, and more symmetrically distributed landslides than previous studies would suggest. Our findings caution against overly relying on across-the-board models of slope stability response to seismic ground shaking. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
KW  - Landslide
KW  - Earthquake
KW  - Thrust fault
KW  - Fault rupture dynamics
KW  - Topography
KW  - Haiti
Y1  - 2013
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2012.11.027
SN  - 0169-555X
VL  - 184
SP  - 127
EP  - 138
PB  - ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
CY  - AMSTERDAM
ER  -