Humanitarian Military
Intervention and World Politics
What is humanitarian military
intervention?
Political, legal and moral issues
The Solidarist case for humanitarian
military intervention
Objections for legitimizing humanitarian
military intervention
What is humanitarian military
intervention?
Patterns of intervention in conflict situations post
Cold War:
-boundaries between peacekeeping (under the Chapter
VI of the UN Charter) and peace enforcement (under
the Chapter VII of the UN Charter)
-is there a ‘hybrid’ type of operation?
-practical aspects: IFOR and SFOR in Bosnia and
Herzegovina; Somalia 1993
Definition of humanitarian military intervention/
limited intervention/ peace enforcement
‘dictatorial or coercive interference in the sphere of
jurisdiction of sovereign state to protect or relieve
individuals facing mass oppression or genocide’
(Knudsen: 1997, 171).
Legal/ moral authority and humanitarian
military intervention engagement
The international law: the UN Charter and the
principles of sovereignty and non-intervention
Chapter VII of the UN Charter
Connecting international peace and security with
violations of international humanitarian law: UNSCRs
688 and 794; customary law
Justification issues: threshold for humanitarian law
violation; what constitutes legitimacy; multilaterality
of the intervention; the level of humanitarian
ambition; the impartiality problem; and the effect/
security aspect of the involvement
The Solidarist case for humanitarian
military intervention
Moral justification- humanitarian
motivation of these operations
Political argument
Security considerations
Objections for legitimizing
humanitarian military intervention
States do not intervene for primarily
humanitarian reasons
States are not allowed to risk their soldiers’
lives on humanitarian crusades
Disagreement on what principles should
govern a right of humanitarian intervention
The effectiveness of such operations is
questioned