Armed Humanitarianism
| DOI | 10.1177/002070209304800401 |
| Author | H. Robert Jackson |
| Published date | 01 December 1993 |
| Date | 01 December 1993 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
ROBERT
H.
JACKSON
Armed
humanitarianism
THE
QUESTION
OF
HUMANITARIAN
INTERVENTION
A
defining
feature
of
international
relations
since
the
end
of
the
Cold
War
is
the
sharp
increase
in
the involvement
of
the
United
Nations
in
armed
conflicts
around
the
world.
Since
Iraq's
invasion
of
Kuwait
in
August
199o
there
has
been
an
acceleration
of
United
Nations
resolutions
and
actions
on
a
wide
front.
In
1992
alone
there
was
an
almost
fivefold
increase
in
the
deployment
of
United
Nations
peacekeepers,
from
11,ooo
at
the start
of
the
year
to
52,ooo
at
the
end.'
Blue
berets
have
been
deployed
to
Iraq
and
Kuwait,
Angola,
El
Salvador,
Western
Sahara,
Croatia,
Bosnia,2
Macedonia,
Cambodia,
Soma-
lia,
and
Mozambique.
There
were
other
places
where
similar
international
action
was
conceivable:
Sudan,
Liberia,
Georgia,
Armenia,
Azerbaijan,
Afghanistan,
and
Tajikistan
were only
the
most
obvious
candidates
at
the
time
of
writing.
Professor
of
Political
Science,
University
of
British
Columbia,
Vancouver,
Bc,
and
during
1993-4
Visiting
Senior
Research
Fellow,
Jesus
College,
Oxford;
author
of
Quasi-States:
Sovereignty,
International
Relations
and
the
Third
World
(199o);
editor
(with
Alan
James)
of
States
in a
Changing
World
(1993).
Some
of
the
arguments
in this
paper originated
in
another
study
co-authored
with
Terry
Kersch.
I
also
wish
acknowledge
the
helpful
comments
of Jennifer
Jackson
and
the
financial
support
of the
Social
Sciences
and
Humanities
Research
Council
of
Canada (summer
1993).
i
Marrack
Goulding,
'The
evolution
of
United
Nations
peacekeeping,'
Interna-
tional
Affairs
69
(July
1993), 451.
2
The
correct
name
is
Bosnia-Hercegovina,
but
for the
sake
of
brevity
I
will
use
the
shorter
form.
International
Journal
XLVIII
AUTUMN
1993
580
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
These
international
activities
provoke
important
questions
about
non-intervention
which
arguably
has
been
the Grundnorm
of international
relations at
least
since
the
founding
of
the
United
Nations
in
1945.
Should the
international
community
intervene
with
armed
force
in
countries
where
there
are
grave
humanitarian
problems
or
gross
violations
of
human
rights
but
where
no
obvious
threats
to
peace
and
security
are
involved?
I
cannot
answer
this
question
categorically,
and
indeed
it
cannot
be
answered
in
the
abstract
because
the
answer
will
always
depend
on
the
circumstances
of
each
particular
case.
All
I
can
do
is
canvass
the
main
normative considerations
that
could
not
be
overlooked
and
would
have
to
be
taken
into
account
before
one
could
answer
the
question.
Foremost
among
these
are
the
standards
of international conduct that
exist
at
the
time the
question
is
posed.
Theory
is
the client
of
practice
in
international
ethics and
not
the
other
way
around.
It
is
doubtful
that
there
could
be
an
'ethics
of
intervention'
in
the
purely
abstract
sense
as
a
study
in
moral
philosophy.
That
is
because
acts
of
intervention
are
always
embedded
in
situations
which
must
be
assessed
before
judg-
ments
can
be
rendered
one
way
or the
other.
The
ethics
of
intervention
are
a
situational
ethics
defined
by
the
norms
and
conditions
of
the
international
system
in
existence
at
the
time
and
by
the
circumstances
of
the
case
in
question.3
Stanley
Hoff-
mann got
it
right
when
he
characterized
international
ethics
as
an
'applied
ethics'
which
'is
not
the
province
of
the
ethical
phi-
losopher'
but of
the
international
relations scholar
who
takes
an
interest
in
normative
questions.4
I
will
review
several
recent
cases
of
international
intervention,
all
of
which were
still
unfold-
ing
at
the
time
of
writing
in
the summer of
1993
and
have
not
3
See
Arnold
Wolfers,
'Statesmanship
and
moral
choice,'
in
Discord
and
Collabo-
ration
(Baltimore:
Johns
Hopkins
University
Press
1962),
47-65.
I
expand
on
this
point
in
'The
political
theory
of
international
society,'
in
Ken
Booth
and
Steve
Smith,
eds,
International
Political
Theory
7bday
(New
York:
Polity
Press
1994).
4
Stanley
Hoffmann,
Duties
beyond
Borders
(Syracuse
NY:
Syracuse
University
Press
1981),
189.
To continue reading
Request your trial