Honors Research: The Democratic Republic of the Congo:

The United Nations, Power Politics and the Restructuring of the Democratic Republic of the Congo:

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), located in the heart of Africa and virtually landlocked by nine surrounding countries, has suffered from several decades of authoritarian dictatorship, most notably under President Mobuto’s government. Since 1998, an estimated 5.4 million Congolese have lost their lives due to conflict, the most since World War II. Consequently, the emergence of the United Nations Organization Mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) has attempted to institutionalize normative democratic principles and subsequent international law within the government and the society. Jack Snyder and Leslie Vinjamuri note excellently that attempting to execute universal norms of justice “in the absence of political and institutional preconditions risks weakening norms of justice and revealing their ineffectiveness.”[1] Their argument recognizes the social and political fragility international organizations are faced with in restructuring the DRC. MONUC is currently the largest United Nations mission in the world consisting of nearly 20 thousand military personnel.

The arbitrary borders of the surrounding states since European colonialism have been a cause for much of the violence throughout the continent. The countless surrounding conflicts are engrained in ethnic and political tensions complicating the many international efforts for reconciliation. These conflicts have rebuked state boundaries and violated the concept of national sovereignty that the DRC presupposes. Furthermore, why is it that the DRC, one of the most pivotal natural resource providers in the world, remains in humanitarian decay almost 15 years after the collapse of its authoritarian state and amidst the involvement of nearly 150 international organizations?

My research will analyze the involvement of international organizations in developing a legal structure for justice, democracy, institutionalization and infrastructure building. Dissecting the structural bureaucratic workings of MONUC and the emanations involved provides an effective and solid discourse for understanding the continued humanitarian plight and illegal exploitation of mineral resources. I will examine the effects of power politics and the mineral resources entering international economic markets. Additionally, MONUC has little enforcement power amidst a vast international market of willing buyers. I am proposing that a stronger international effort to promote universal legal norms is necessary for the government to monitor resource extraction, therefore, reducing the black market and available funds to rebel factions.

The significance of this inquiry is engrained in the humanitarian cost of inaction from powerful democratic nation states and the abundance of high-demand natural resources present in the DRC. The development of effective due process of law and jurisprudential discourse in a workable justice system in the DRC relies heavily on societal acceptance of such norms. Additionally, the aforementioned relates to arguments in transitional justice, power politics and international organizations, which are investigated extensively by political scientists. My research hopes to portray the pervasive issues in the DRC while addressing fundamental problems in the pursuit for human dignity, due process of law, and human standards of living in central Africa.

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[1] Jack Snyder, Leslie Vinjamuri, “Trials and Errors: Principle and Pragmatism in Strategies of International Justice,” International Security, Vol. 28, No. 3 (2003/04): 6.