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Humanitarian intervention international relations
Humanitarian intervention international relations
Humanitarian intervention international relations
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ISIL is threatening the stability of the Middle East. It has become a terrorist organization capable of committing heinous crimes as it has been evidenced by the coordinated attacks all over the world. President Obama has decided to conduct air strikes, but the effort has not been as effective as intended. Therefore, it is imperative for the U.S. to take a leadership role and form a coalition that can send ground forces to Iraq and Syria. This is not an easy task, but it could be possible if President Obama is able to appeal to the responsibility to protect principle. Many people argue against it, but as the UN puts it, “Sovereignty no longer exclusively protects States from foreign interference; it is a charge of responsibility that holds …show more content…
He states that we do not have the right to intervene, but the responsibility to protect” (Evans, 2008). Humanitarian intervention can be effective at times, but not always. Seybolt notes that one of the most dangerous aspects of humanitarian intervention is when international governments manipulate the numbers of deaths and refugees to suit their agenda. It is important to report the real amount of people saved because overestimating can be used as an excuse to show effectiveness through radical actions. Additionally, empirical evidence shows in past conflicts, lack of resources and slow response prevented saving more lives. To prevent the same failures from reoccurring, it is necessary to consider three factors “the needs of the population and aid organizations on the ground, the objectives of the intervention, and the strategy employed by the intervener” (Seybolt, 2007). All of these lessons learned helped to shape the current R2P policy. For example, humanitarian intervention terminology was removed because it was linked only to military intervention. As it was shown during Operation Restore Hope, intervention goes well beyond that. Unfortunately, the civil wars of Iraq and Syria are keeping ISIL strong and a negotiated agreement seems to be the only way to end them. The inefficacy to deal with the atrocities committed in Syria and Iraq clearly undermine the principles of the R2P policy because the international community has failed to protect the population from “genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing” (United Nations,
In August of 1992, President George Bush Sr. sent US soldiers into Somalia to provide humanitarian relief to those Somalis suffering from starvation. The major problems in Somalia started when President Mohammed Siad Barre was overthrown by a coalition of opposing clans. Although there were several opposing groups, the prominent one was led by Mohammed Farah Aidid. Following the overthrow of Barre, a massive power struggle ensued. These small scale civil wars led to the destruction of the agriculture in Somalia, which in turn led to the deprivation of food in large parts of the country. When the international community heard of this, large quantities of food were sent to ease Somali suffering. However, clan leaders like Aidid routinely hijacked food and exchanged it for weapons leaving thousands to starve to death. An estimated 300,000 Somalis died between 1991 and 1992 (Clancy 234-236). US soldiers were later sent into Somalia to capture Aidid, but when the operation got bloody, displeasing the American public, Clinton withdrew troops (Battersby 151). In The Morality of War, Brian Orend outlines ethical guidelines that should be followed in all three stages of war: jus ad bellum, jus in bello, and jus post bellum. Orend states that a nation can be moral going into war, but immoral coming out of one. Did the US act justly in all facets of the Somali conflict? The United States espoused all the guiding principles of jus ad bellum but right intent, upheld the principals of jus in bello, and clearly failed to uphold several aspects of jus post bellum during the armed humanitarian intervention in Somalia.
President Barack Obama delivered an address to the nation on the U.S. Counterterrorism strategy to combat ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) on September 10, 2014. The recent issue, which became the basis for this speech, has been President Obama’s response to Syria’s Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons against diverse civilians. He delivered this speech to prove to the nation that he has an elaborate strategy along with several tactics to destroy the terrorist group. Obama described the ISIL in his speech by stating, “in a region that has known so much bloodshed, these terrorists are unique in their brutality. They execute captured prisoners. They kill children. They enslave, rape, and force women into marriage. They threatened a religious minority with genocide. And in acts of barbarism, they
In “Ethics and Intervention: The ‘Humanitarian Exception’ and the Problem of Abuse in the Case of Iraq, Alex Bellamy argues that war is only justified in exceptional cases where “supreme humanitarian intervention” is genuinely required (Bellamy, p. 137). Bellamy discusses the ethics of intervention and the decision of the US to invade Iraq. He provides the argument that international law does not provide moral reasoning on the issues of war. However, he acknowledges that it does provide an important foundation on the issue of legitimacy of war. He discusses two legal justifications for war, which include implied UN authorization and pre-emptive self-defense of that state. Neither of these is the case in Iraq, although the government may say
And until we can properly properly deal with the resettlement of refugees and the maintanence of refugee camps, then another criteria should be added for the employment of humanitarian intervention. Criteria for dealing with refugees created by humanitarian intervention should be established and agreed upon, before military force is used. Or, if there are many refugees, then humanitarian intervention should be used to stop the crisis creating the
The concept of humanitarian intervention is highly contested but it is defined by Wise to be the threat or use of force across state borders by a state (or a group of states) aimed at preventing widespread and grave violations of fundamental human rights of individuals other than its own citizens, without the permission of the state within whose territory force is applied.
First of all, the R2P clearly states that: i) the State has the primary responsibility to protect its population from heinous human rights abuses such as genocide, war crimes, crime against humanity and ethnic cleansing; ii) the international community has the responsibility to assist States in fulfilling their primary responsibility as indicated in point i) and as such, it should use appropriate diplomatic, humanitarian and other peaceful means to protect populations from those crimes; iii) however, when a State fails to protect its own populations or is the actual perpetrator of such crimes against its populations, the international community must be prepared to ta...
SUMMARY: The Syrian Civil War between the Syrian government, and the insurgents, as well as the Free Syrian Army has been escalating since early 2011. The United States, and our allies have faced difficulty in sending aid to Syria, and continue to deal with obstacles in sending even basic medications to Syrian civilians. However, the United States and its allies have also contributed to the lack of organization and the disparity in Syria by sending aid and artillery to individuals based only on political connection, and ignoring organization, local alliances, and without a true understanding of the reality of the Syrian localities to best protect the Syrian protestors. The question addressed in this memo will be defining the viable options to be pursued in Syria, how to pursue them, and assessing the most beneficial path of least resistance when offering aid, funds, and artillery to specific groups in the country. The recommendation will be that although the best alternative action item would be to choose a Syrian group with the least oppositional values comparative to the United States to fund, supply with arms, and train; that the United States should do nothing for the time being. Given the physical and financial risk involved with the Syrian Civil War, it would be prudent for the United States to simply observe how the war progresses over the next several months, as well as complete some research to truly understand the state of affairs in local areas of Syria to determine the extent to which the United States could identify a group to provide aid to, as well as the extent to which the United States involvement would be within Syria.
1. POLICY DECISION AND OBJECTIVES: The United States and coalition partners’ policy is to counter any active violent extremists and ideologies including ISIS and its affiliates overseas. Therefore, in order to protect the homeland from the terrorist attacks, eliminating all the terrorist organizations including ISIS that threaten the United States national security. Furthermore, coordinate and collaborate with all other agencies in order to combat terrorism and extremism internationally.
The Syrian Civil War is a good example of world leaders playing by the rules of realism. The civil war began in March of 2011 as part of the Arab Spring, and by July of 2012 17,000 have died and another 170,000 fled the country (Almond). The United Nations Security Council in February of 2012 had tried t...
The past century has witnessed lots of wars, WW1, WW2, Iraq war and many others. Some of them were claimed to be morally justified but can wars really be morally justified? Well, some people claim that morality can never be applied once guns have been armed, but a pacifist - “A person who is opposed to war or violence of any kind” (dictionary.com, 2017) - claims that there is no such a thing as a moral theory that could approve wars under any circumstances, and in the middle of the two opinions the just war exists, which is “A military action that is justified as being permissible for legal or moral acts” (dictionary.com, 2017), though, it is fallacious to say that the middle ground is correct without careful consideration and critical thinking. The problem is there is a flaw in all options, that is, none of them is complete, with wars taking the lives of thousands of people, and peace cannot always solve the problems. An example of a somewhat recent just war is the 6th of
Since the end of the cold war, the multifaceted issue of humanitarian intervention has become a highly controversial topic in the international community. The term refers to the armed intervention of one state into the internal affairs of another, without their consent, with the objective of halting gross human rights violations (Simonen, K., & Brill, 2011, p. 1) Increasingly prominent in worldwide debates, the subject of humanitarian intervention incites considerable controversy regarding its legality and legitimacy. The international community faces the ethical dilemma of whether to intervene militarily in states where a supreme humanitarian emergency is impending or currently taking place (Peraino, 1995). This essay will engage with the current debate by focusing on the legal and ethical issues concerning humanitarian intervention. It will be argued that moral obligations should outweigh sovereign equality claims, state national interest and compliance with international law.
One of most crucial aspects of humanitarian intervention is the lack of proper motives. As noted by Bush, Martiniello, and Mercer, in the case of Libya and Côte d’Ivoire the Western nations were pursuing their own economic imperial interests under the guise of humanitarian intervention (Bush). The lack of pure motives to help decrease crimes against humanity resulted in an increased number of human rights violations in both Libya and Côte d’Ivoire (Bush). In order
Foreign Intervention Should Not Be On The USA’s Ajenda War. Nation-building. Armed conflict devastating to all those involved. These are all consequences that stem from U.S. intervention in foreign conflicts. The United States has a long history of making everybody else’s business their own.
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Why does this man not know how to fish? What does he need in order to learn? Why does the analogy assume that the person telling it knows how to fish the correct way? The old adage about giving a man a fish becomes increasingly complex in the Geopolitical world that we live in now.
When considering the concepts of human rights and state sovereignty, the potential for conflict between the two is evident. Any humanitarian intervention by other actors within the international system would effectively constitute a violation of the traditional sovereign rights of states to govern their own domestic affairs. Thus, the answer to this question lies in an examination of the legitimacy and morality of humanitarian intervention. While traditionally, the Westphalian concept of sovereignty and non-intervention has prevailed, in the period since the Cold War, the view of human rights as principles universally entitled to humanity, and the norm of enforcing them, has developed. This has led to the 1990’s being described as a ‘golden