Hannah Choi GLBL 100E FA21 9 8 21 Word Count 804 Importance of Conflict Management and Conflict Resolution Conflict management and conflict resolution institutions need to be strengthened and empowered to act faster and independently The main role of conflict management is to remove tension between states and aim for continuous peace It needs to have enough power to intervene between countries to stop atrocities crimes and hold war criminals accountable Numerous examples of failed conflict management have occurred in the past few decades such as the Rwandan genocide In 1994 there was a genocide committed by Hutu people killing almost 1million of Tutus in Rwanda While this was occurring in Rwanda the outside world didn t bother to stop this massacre not even the UN which is responsible for maintaining international peace step in to help It only intervened to evacuate foreigners yet turned their heads away from the massive slaughter of Tutsis Soldiers were only allowed to use weapons for self defense and troops were withdrawn when they were most needed As a result Rwanda experienced significant damage to their country nearly 40 of the pre war population was missing the country devastated Boudreaux 9 If the UN had taken a stronger initiative to take control over this situation it could have avoided or at the very least curtailed this tragedy Despite this failure of the UN in Rwanda a post conflict reconciliation known as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission TRC and International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda ICTR were formed after the massacre The goal of these systems was to bring back Tutsi and Hutu together by resolving hatred towards each other after listening to victims the Commission decided if and how victims in each case should be compensated for their harms Boudreaux 9 Overall it was successful in bringing justice healing the public exposing criminals and reducing tension Conflict management is also responsible for keeping big power countries under control so that they won t be able to abuse their powers for their personal benefits For example big country such as the US uses its military intervention to get access to scarce natural resources like oil One of the reasons of the Iraqi War was to protect their accessibility to oil in Iraq Iraq became part of the oil war mechanism where attempts by major powers to dominate oil sources guide foreign policy decision Fedorak 169 If there is no conflict resolution countries with big military will take advantage of foreign interests such as taking away natural resources Therefore conflict resolution needs to limit these powers and provide equal opportunities for other countries to have access to these resources In order to achieve effective and responsive conflict management there should be more funding toward peacekeeper There are a noticeably small number of resources available for UN to react to international conflict To have an effective and responsive UN they need better equipment and personnel the system requires a boost in the quality of contributions to blue helmet operations including a fairer and more balance division of labor Effective and Responsible Protection from Atrocity Crimes Toward Global Action Only 7 23 billion was budgeted for peacekeeping whilst only 20 American troops were operating in 2012 The number of troops need to be increased and more money of the military budget needs to be focused on peacekeeping organizations It also needs more media coverage spreading awareness More attention is needed to be able to effectively protect and limit an abuse of human rights All political leaders need to cooperate to support UN so that they can make thoughtful decision on military actions all members states should engage in further discussion on a monitoring and reporting system for states that implement UN mandated mission Effective and Responsible Protection from Atrocity Crimes Toward Global Action The UN needs to be capable of gathering information to prevent a bias of information about any atrocities provided by the government Depending on which media they work and cooperate with they can get credible data They should be able to distinguish between biased information and fair judgement The world needs to acknowledge the important role of conflict management and conflict resolution institutions Its major responsibility is to step in when there are unethical events occurring and to maintain peace in between countries Conflict resolution institutions hold criminals accountable and punish them depending on their crimes They are also responsible for resolving emotional and physical conflict Effective conflict resolution can t be achieved unless all political leaders give enough interest All of the government needs to prioritize holding war criminals accountable and having enough power to step in to stop any atrocity crimes The UN should be able to act independently any time when needed There were already multiple failures of protection from atrocity crimes As a whole world we need to constantly reflect and learn from our failures to achieve successful conflict resolution All states should be engaged in UN discussions and political investments