Humanitarian Intervention and the Responsibility To Protect Who Should Intervene?

by Pattison, James

• ISBN13: 9780199656622
• ISBN10: 0199656622
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-11-08
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Humanitarian Intervention and the Responsibility To Protect considers who should undertake humanitarian intervention in response to an ongoing or impending humanitarian crisis, such as found in Rwanda in early 1994, Kosovo in 1999, and Darfur more recently. The doctrine of the responsibility to protect asserts that when a state is failing to uphold its citizens' human rights, the international community has a responsibility to protect these citizens, including by undertaking humanitarian intervention. It is unclear, however, which particular agent should be tasked with this responsibility. Should we prefer intervention by the UN, NATO, a regional or subregional organization (such as the African Union), a state, a group of states, or someone else? This book answers this question by, first, determining which qualities of interveners are morally significant and, second, assessing the relative importance of these qualities. For instance, is it important that an intervener have a humanitarian motive? Should an intervener be welcomed by those it is trying to save? How important is it that an intervener will be effective and what does this mean in practice? The book then considers the more empirical question of whether (and to what extent) the current interveners actually possess these qualities, and therefore should intervene. For instance, how effective can we expect UN action to be in the future? Is NATO likely to use humanitarian means? Overall, it develops a particular normative conception of legitimacy for humanitarian intervention. It uses this conception of legitimacy to assess not only current interveners, but also the desirability of potential reforms to the mechanisms and agents of humanitarian intervention.

Author Biography

James Pattison is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Manchester.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Acknowledgements	p. xii
List of Abbreviations	p. xiv
The Problem of Who Should Intervene	p. 1
The Importance of the Topic	p. 8
Humanitarian Intervention and the Responsibility to Protect	p. 12
A Duty or only a Right?	p. 15
Just Cause	p. 20
Definitions	p. 24
The Road Ahead	p. 36
Humanitarian Intervention and International Law	p. 43
The Legal Picture: International Law on Humanitarian Intervention	p. 45
The Moral Significance of an Intervener's Legal Status	p. 51
Effectiveness and the Moderate Instrumentalist Approach	p. 69
The Moderate Instrumentalist Approach Introduced	p. 70
Details of the Moderate Instrumentalist Approach	p. 79
Alternative Approaches	p. 89
An Intervener's Conduct: Humanitarian Intervention and Jus in Bello	p. 99
The Principles	p. 100
Consequentialism and Doing and Allowing	p. 112
The Absolutist Challenge	p. 117
Avoiding the Absolutist Challenge	p. 120
Representativeness and Humanitarian Intervention	p. 129
Internal Representativeness	p. 131
Local External Representativeness	p. 140
Global External Representativeness	p. 146
An Intervener's Humanitarian Credentials: Motives, Intentions, and Outcomes	p. 153
The Difference between Humanitarian Intentions, Motives, and Outcomes	p. 154
Humanitarian Motives	p. 156
Humanitarian Intentions	p. 161
Humanitarian Outcomes	p. 168
Selectivity	p. 169
The War in Iraq	p. 173
Assessing Current Interveners	p. 181
Outline of the Complete Conception of Legitimacy	p. 181
Answering the Two Central Questions	p. 190
Which Current Agent Should Intervene?	p. 199
Inadequacies of the Current Agents and Mechanisms	p. 212
Reforms to the Agents and Mechanisms of Humanitarian Intervention	p. 219
Reform of International Law	p. 219
Enhancement of UN Standby Arrangements	p. 227
Creation of a (Small) Cosmopolitan UN Force	p. 229
A Larger Cosmopolitan UN Force and Cosmopolitan Democratic Institutions	p. 233
Improved Regional Organizations	p. 236
Conclusion: Realizing Legitimate Humanitarian Intervention	p. 245
The Duty to Reform	p. 246
Will and Interest	p. 247
Utilizing the Responsibility to Protect	p. 250
Bibliography	p. 255
Index	p. 277
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