Sharing Sovereignty Krasner

In Sharing Sovereignty, Krasner argues that individual nation-states’ sovereignties are challenged by contemporary international affairs, such as the need for humanitarian intervention. For example, Krasner says that Westphalian/Vatellian sovereignty advocates refraining from “intervening in the internal affairs of other states” (2017, 192-193). Although the modern political order was established by the Westphalian system, it is evident that this type of sovereignty advocated for “has frequently been violated,” as humanitarian intervention directly involves itself in another nation-state’s domestic affairs (Krasner, 2017, 193). He even states that “for many countries domestic sovereignty is not working” (Krasner, 2017, 195). This shows that

To expand upon the notion of shared sovereignty and its relation to humanitarian intervention, the crisis in Syria has reflected these topics. Recently, the Syrian president “reportedly” authorized an attack of the city of Douma with chemical weapons (Kreps & Maxey, 2018). President Trump of the US remarked that this crisis “‘cannot be ignored by the civilized world’” (Kreps & Maxey, 2018), referencing the responsibility to protect. In addition, many American citizens are on board. In a survey experiment done by Kreps & Maxey, they found that “the public is more likely to support the use of force for humanitarian purposes than for defending another country — by margins of up to 27 percent” (2018). While this view is well-natured and shows that Americans want to intervene and feel the responsibility to protect if it stops suffering of people, it does also show how Americans want the US to be seen as the “good guys” overall that rescue rather than being an ally for another

Humanitarian intervention can be costly; if military force is used, it may result in a big number of casualties (Krasner, 2017, 197). The US has been split on its thoughts regarding intervening in Syria. While President Trump referred to the responsibility to protect, he has also has expressed his desire to remove the troops from Syria, as he said that the US “had spent too much time and money in Syria and now had other priorities” (Kreps & Maxey, 2018). His views have also been referred to as the “‘America First’ approach” (Kreps & Maxey, 2018). This also aligns with “‘realist tradition in American public opinion’” (Kreps & Maxey, 2018) as realism puts national interests first. While the realist perspective that holds the “America First” approach is widely present in American opinion, the US is such a large world power that international interests always have to be