The History of Humanitarian Intervention in Theory and Practice
Seminar 2nd term 2014-2015
Organized by Dirk Moses (HEC) and Jennifer Welsh (SPS)
Mondays 11.00-12.50
Sala Belvedere, Villa Schifanoia
(Please register with adele.battistini@eui.eu and kathy.fabian@eui.eu)
Introduction to the Seminar
The last two decades have witnessed a resurgence of interest in the law, morality and politics of military
intervention, particularly when undertaken for what are declared to be humanitarian purposes.
Nonetheless, the question of when, if ever, outside parties can legitimately intervene in a sovereign state to
address massive suffering of that state's population, is a highly contentious one. The humanitarian
rationale for the use of force—which dates back to the beginning of the modern state system—has
continued to encounter resistance, despite its apparent appeal. This interdepartmental seminar explores the
history of this rationale since the early nineteenth century. It analyses the constitutive notions of the
humanitarian and (military) intervention, as well as the context of imperial rivalry and the asymmetrical
global order in which debates about humanitarian intervention have taken place. The practices and
discourses about humanitarian intervention since the Second World War and decolonization will also
feature in the seminar, as will the extensive debates about the related principle of the 'responsibility to
protect', which has risen to prominence over the last fifteen years.
Organisation of the seminar
The seminar is taught in two-hour sessions. At each meeting there are two short oral presentations by
students on key issues of interest from the readings (of no more than 10-15 minutes), followed by general
discussion.
Students who wish to take this seminar for credit must meet relevant HEC and SPS Department
attendance requirements, complete all required readings, and participate actively in seminar discussions.
Students have the option of writing a research paper for the class, and if they wish to take this option they
should discuss their proposed topic with Professor Moses or Professor Welsh well before the
Department’s due date for term papers for the spring semester. Anyone wishing to audit the class must
fulfill all requirements expected of other students.
If you want to write a term paper for this seminar, please send a copy by email to one of the seminar's
professors (copied to his/her assistant). Once the paper is approved, your credit award will be updated in
your academic records.
12 January: Origins of Sovereignty and Early Modern Precedents
Daniel Philpott, Revolutions in Sovereignty: How Ideas Shaped Modern International Relations
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 1-10; 75-110
OR Christian Reus-Smit, The Moral Purpose of the State (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1999), 87-140
Simon Chesterman, Just War or Just Peace? Humanitarian Intervention and International Law (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2001), 7-24.
David Trim, ‘Intervention in European history, c1520-1850’, in Stefano Recchia and Jennifer Welsh
(eds.), Just and Unjust Military Intervention: European Thinkers from Vitoria to Mill (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2013), 21-47.
Extra reading (introducing the debate on humanitarian intervention)
Gary Bass, Freedom’s Battle: The Origins of Humanitarian Intervention (New York: Vintage, 2008),
Introduction and Conclusion.
Richard Drayton, ‘Beyond Humanitarian Imperialism: The Dubious Origins of “Humanitarian
Intervention” and Some Rules for its Future', in Bronwen Everill and Josiah Kaplan (eds.), The History
and Practice of Humanitarian Intervention and Aid in Africa (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 217–
31.
19 January: Interventions in the Ottoman Empire and against the Slave Trade
Davide Rodogno, Against Massacre: Humanitarian Interventions in the Ottoman Empire, 1815–1915
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012), 1–90.
Abigail Green, ‘Intervening in the Jewish Question, 1840–1878’, in Brendan Simms and D.J.B. Trim
(eds.), Humanitarian Intervention: A History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 139–158.
Maeve Ryan, ‘The Price of Legitimacy in Humanitarian Intervention: Britain, the Right to Search, and the
Abolition of the West African Slave Trade, 1807–1867,” in Brendan Simms and D.J.B. Trim (eds.),
Humanitarian Intervention: A History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 231–256.
Extra Reading:
Jenny S. Martinez, ‘Anti-Slavery Courts and the Dawn of International Human Rights Law’, Yale Law
Journal (2008), 550–641.
26 January: Quasi-Sovereignty and Foreign Interventions
Luke Glanville, Sovereignty and the Responsibility to Protect: A New History (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2014), 100–131.
Lauren Benton, ‘From Imperial Law to Imperial Constitutions: The Problem of Quasi Sovereignty, 1870–
1900’, Law and History Review, Vol. 26, No. 3 (2008), 595–691.
Davide Rodogno, Against Massacre: Humanitarian Interventions in the Ottoman Empire, 1815–1915
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012), 91–117.
Mike Sewell, ‘Humanitarian Intervention, Democracy, and Imperialism: The American War with Spain,
1898, and After’, in Brendan Simms and D.J.B. Trim (eds.), Humanitarian Intervention: A History
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 303–322.
2 February: Armenian Genocide, Non-Intervention, and its Consequence
Davide Rodogno, Against Massacre: Humanitarian Interventions in the Ottoman Empire, 1815–1915
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012), 185–211.
Donald Bloxham, ‘Three Imperialisms and a Turkish Nationalism: International Stresses, Imperial
Disintegration and the Armenian Genocide’, Patterns of Prejudice, Vol. 36, No. 4 (2002), 37–58.
Gary Bass, Freedom’s Battle: The Origins of Humanitarian Intervention (New York: Vintage, 2008),
315–340.
Rouben Paul Adalian, ’American Diplomatic Correspondence in the Age of Mass Murder: The Amenian
Genocide in the U.S. Archives’, in Jay Winter (ed.), America and the Armenian Genocide (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2003), 145–184.
9 February: The Second World War and its Consequences
Robert Edwin Herzstein, ‘Is It Time to Stop Asking Why the West Failed to Save More Jews?’, Holocaust
and Genocide Studies. Vol. 12, No. 2 (1998), 326-38.
Raphael Lemkin, ‘Genocide as a Crime under International Law’, American Journal of International Law,
Vol. 41, No. 1 (1947), 145-151.
Luke Glanville, Sovereignty and the Responsibility to Protect: A New History (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2014), 132-159.
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide:
https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%2078/volume-78-I-1021-English.pdf
See also:
United Nations Charter:
https://treaties.un.org/doc/publication/ctc/uncharter.pdf
16 February: Secessionist Civil Wars and Humanitarian Intervention:
Howard L. Weisberg, ‘The Congo Crisis of 1964: A Case Study in Humanitarian Intervention’, Virginia
Journal of International Law, Vol. 12 (1971–2), 267–276.
Thomas M. Franck and Nigel S. Rodley, ‘After Bangladesh: The Law of Humanitarian Intervention by
Force’, American Journal of International Law, Vol. 67 (1973), 275–305.
Karen E. Smith, ‘The UK and “Genocide” in Biafra,” Journal of Genocide Research, Vol. 16, Nos. 2–3
(2014), 247–262.
Sonia Cordera, ‘India’s Response to the 1971 East Pakistan Crisis: Hidden and Open Reasons for
Intervention’, Journal of Genocide Research, Vol. 17, No. 1 (2015), 45–62.
23 February: The Revival of Interventionism in the 1990s
Nicholas Wheeler, Saving Strangers: Humanitarian Intervention and International Society (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2000), 139-171
James Mayall (ed), The New Interventionism: 1991-1994 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1996), 1-18; 94-124
Simon Chesterman, Just War or Just Peace? Humanitarian Intervention and International Law (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2001), 112-162.
Adam Roberts, ‘The United Nations and Humanitarian Intervention’, in Jennifer M. Welsh (ed),
Humanitarian Intervention and International Relations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 71-97.
2 March: Genocide and the Question of Intervention in Rwanda
Nicholas Wheeler, Saving Strangers: Humanitarian Intervention and International Society (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2000), 208-241
Samantha Power, ‘A Problem from Hell’: America and the Age of Genocide (New York: Basic Books,
2002), 329-390.
Michael Barnett, Eyewitness to a Genocide: The United Nations and Rwanda (Ithaca: Cornell University
Press, 2002), Introduction, 49-129.
Stephen Wertheim, ‘A Solution from hell: the United States and the rise of humanitarian interventionism,
1991-2003’, Journal of Genocide Research, Vol. 12 (2010), 149-172.
9 March: The Contested Intervention – The Former Yugoslavia and NATO’s Bombing of Kosovo
Nicholas Wheeler, Saving Strangers: Humanitarian Intervention and International Society (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2000), 242-284.
Susan L. Woodward, ‘The Security Council and the Wars in the Former Yugoslavia’, in Vaughan Lowe,
Adam Roberts, Dominik Zaum and Jennifer Welsh (eds.), The United Nations Security Council and War:
The Evolution of Thought and Practice since 1945 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 406-441.
Alan J. Kuperman, ‘The Moral Hazard of Humanitarian Intervention: Lessons from the Balkans’,
International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 52 (2008), 49-80.
Alex J. Bellamy and Paul D. Williams, ‘On the Limits of Moral Hazard: The Responsibility to Protect,
Armed Conflict, and Mass Atrocities’, European Journal of International Relations, EJIR online, 2011.
Available at: http://ejt.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/05/12/1354066110393366.full.pdf+html
Extra recommended reading:
Henry Shue, ‘Bombing to rescue? NATO’s 1999 bombing of Serbia’, in Deen K. Chaterjee and
Don E. Scheid (eds.), Ethics and Foreign Intervention (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003),
97-117.
See also:
The Kosovo Report, The Independent International Commission on Kosovo (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2000), especially Chapter 1, 3, 6 and 7. Available at
http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/6D26FF88119644CFC1256989005CD392thekosovoreport.pdf
23 March: The Development and Evolution of the Responsibility to Protect
Alex J. Bellamy, Global Politics and the Responsibility to Protect: From Words to Deeds (New York:
Routledge, 2011), page range TBD
Jennifer M. Welsh, ‘The Responsibility to Protect: Securing the Individual in International Society?’ in
Benjamin Goold and Liora Lazarus (eds.), Security and Human Rights (Oxford: Hart, 2007), 363-381.
Gareth Evans, ‘The Responsibility to Protect: An Idea Whose Time Has Come … And Gone?’,
International Relations, Vol. 22 (2008), 283-298.
Alex de Waal, ‘Darfur and the failure of the Responsibility to Protect’, International Affairs, Vol. 83
(2007), 1039-1054.
Aidan Hehir, ‘The Responsibility to Protect: “Sound and Fury Signifying Nothing”?’, International
Relations, Vol. 24 (2010), 218-239.
Thomas G. Weiss, Humanitarian Intervention, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2012), 133-173.
See also:
The Responsibility to Protect, Report of the International Commission on Intervention and State
Sovereignty (Ottawa: IDRC, 2001). Available at: http://idlbnc.idrc.ca/dspace/bitstream/10625/18432/6/IDL-18432.pdf
United Nations, World Summit Outcome, September 16, 2005, paras. 138-140. Available at:
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/ods/A-RES-60-1-E.pdf