Humanitarian Intervention

Humanitarian intervention is a multifaceted issue that has been a topic of concern within international political and legal realms for many decades. It is often defined as

“[…] the threat or use of force across state borders by a state (or group of states) aimed at preventing or ending widespread and grave violations of the fundamental human rights of individuals other than its own citizens, without the permission of the state within whose territory force is applied” (Keohane 1).

After the prosecution of Nazis in the Nuremburg trials on the basis of “crimes against humanity” and genocide, the abuse of human rights has become a more salient issue in international society (Buchanan 136). However, when situations of human rights violations escalate to emergency levels, it becomes complicated to intervene despite the international laws condemning genocide and other large-scale human rights violations. This is due to Article 2(4) and Chapters VI and VII of the UN Charter, which essentially state that nations may not militarily intervene in the affairs of other nations (Wheeler 41). These laws make it difficult for nations to help oppressed citizens of other nations unless the human rights violations constitute a “threat to international peace and security” or unless the intervention is in self-defense or otherwise authorized by the UN Security Council (Wheeler 92).

The books Humanitarian Intervention: Ethical, Legal, and Political Dilemmas, by Robert Keohane and J.L. Holzgrefe, and Saving Strangers: Humanitarian Intervention in International Society by Nicholas J. Wheeler contain value information and analyses on the subject of unauthorized interventions. Humanitarian Intervention is a set of essays chosen by Keohane and H...

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...eeler and the way his information backed up a single argument, I found it to be easier to follow, while Holzgrefe and Keohane’s was more informative about the breadth of viewpoints surrounding the topic.

Unauthorized humanitarian intervention is a complex issue in international society, and is one which can be analyzed in great depth and in a multitude of different ways. Looking at this issue from moral, philosophical, and political standpoints, one may form many different arguments on how to reconcile the legal issues with the moral intuition to act to help those who are oppressed. Saving Strangers, through arguing for a single viewpoint, and Humanitarian Intervention, by compiling many different opinions, both give informative and well-written summaries of one of the more complicated problems that has affected international relations for the past few decades.