Back to the Theory of Humanitarian Interventions

Abstract

The role and place of peace-keeping and humanitarian intervention in the post-Potsdam world order deserves careful research and study, especially when such operations are currently undergoing a period of rapid growth. Among the factors that are pushing forward such a rapid growth of the so-called “war for viable peace” are, first of all, the unprecedented importance attached to the innate and inalienable human rights issues, which lie on the bottom of the “humanitarian intervention” theory. Even if the growing number of non-UN authorized interventions is totally unlawful, as some scholars would argue, it requires careful study at least from the perspective to understand the global security trends of last decade and make assessments for mid-term future. The well-known peace-keeping operations of certain countries or ad hoc coalitions put a big question mark over the effectiveness of existing international legal system and will sooner or later become a basis for the update of the international law. For instance, if there were clear-cut legal regulations, perhaps the Darfur province of Sudan would not stay untouched after Kosovo (1999) or Iraq (2003) and would not have experienced all the horrors of military interventions due to, inter alia, the alleged human rights violations.Copyright acknowledgement: Individual researchers retain the copyright on their work products derived from research funded through a contract or grant from the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research (NCEEER). However, the NCEEER and the United States Government have the right to duplicate and disseminate, in written and electronic form, reports submitted to NCEEER to fulfill Contract or Grant Agreements either (a) for NCEEER’s own internal use, or (b) for use by the United States Government, and as follows: (1) for further dissemination to domestic, international, and foreign governments, entities and/or individuals to serve official United States Government purposes or (2) for dissemination in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act or other law or policy of the United States Government granting the public access to documents held by the United States Government. Neither NCEEER nor the United States Government nor any recipient of this Report may use it for commercial sale.