Humanitarian intervention and world politics

Nicholas J. Wheeler and Alex J. Bellamy

Course: International Relations AnalysisProfessor: Laura Herţa, PhD candidate and TA

Jude Sorana CristinaFaculty of European Studies

IRES (English Track)

OutlineOutline

Introduction What is humanitarian intervention? Objections to legitimizing humanitarian intervention The Solidarist case for humanitarian intervention State practice during the cold war Post-cold war humanitarian interventions Globalization and non-forcible humanitarian

intervention References

IntroductionIntroduction

The research question of the article: “Should humanitarian intervention prevail in front of the

sovereignty principle in case of gross human right violation or in case that we deal with disorder in a failed/murderous state?”

Briefly exposes us the overriding dilemma: sovereignty v. humanitarian intervention

What is humanitarian intervention?

Intervention = breach of national sovereignty What is “humanitarian”? Public international law: restrictionists

(humanitarian intervention is illegal, with the exception of interventions when self-defence is in question) & counter-restrictionists ( the moral duty and the legal right of the society of states to intervene)

Objections to legitimizing humanitarian intervention

States do not intervene out of humanitarian reasons; The internal affairs of one’s states are the matters of

the concerned state; If the forcible humanitarian intervention is legitimized

this could lead to abuse, since there is no mechanism that decides when humanitarian interventions should happen;

Humanitarian intervention is selective since states pursue their own interests;

If humanitarian intervention is not agreed by all the members of the society of states, then international order is undermined;

The Solidarist case for humanitarian intervention

claims that the states have a moral duty and a legal right to intervene when the use of force is the only means to end the slaughter;

counter-reactionists consider that forcible humanitarian intervention is legitimate in the light of the principles of the UN Charter and on the basis of customary law. Moreover, if UN fails to act, then, the individual states might intervene to reduce human suffering;

State practice during the cold war

Vietnam intervention in Cambodia (Dec. 1978) & Tanzania intervention in Uganda (1978-1979)

Common characteristics: both Tanzania and Vietnam claimed that they act in self-defence due to the spill over the border effect;

Why did Tanzania and Vietnam refrain from using the humanitarian intervention formula?

The international society response should be read in terms of Cold War geopolitics

Post-cold war humanitarian interventions (1)

N Iraq (1991), Somalia (UNOSOM II -1992) and Kosovo (1991)

Common motivation: Somalia and N Iraq – pressure of the public opinion and the media;

1. N Iraq humanitarian Intervention (1991): US, UK, FR and Dutch forces intervened to create “safe heavens” for Kurds in the aftermath of the Gulf War;

N.B. : Other motivations2. Somalia3. French intervention in Rwanda: abuse4. NATO intervention in Kosovo (March –June 1999): the

intervention took place with the aim to reduce the Serbian military capacity and to coerce Milosevic to accept the Rambouillet Plan

Post-cold war humanitarian interventions (2)

How legal and legitimate were the interventions?

1. N Iraq intervention was not supported by Chapter 7 of UN Charter

2. Somalia: the intervention was approved under Chapter 7 since this intervention was sui-generis one (Somalia was a failed state);

3. Kosovo intervention was not approved or condemned;

Were the interventions sucessful?

Globalization and non-forcible humanitarian intervention

non forcible humanitarian intervention the cosmopolitan moral awareness global human culture

Question: Why the eradication of global poverty is not as urgent a subject for humanitarian intervention as the deaths of those killed by men in uniform with machine guns?

References

Sean D. Murphy, Humanitarian Intervention: the UN in an Evolving World Order, 1996, first edition, University of Pennsylvania Press, USA

Nicholas J. Wheeler, Saving Strangers: Humanitarian Intervention in International Society, 2003, second edition, Oxford University Press, USA

Oxford University Press Online Resource Center, http://www.oup.com/uk/orc/bin/9780199548866/01student/guide/ch07/