The South, the West, and the meanings of humanitarian intervention in history

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 514-533
Author(s):  
Patrick Quinton-Brown
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Third World ◽  
Humanitarian Intervention ◽  
Responsibility To Protect ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Way

AbstractAs it has been written, the history of humanitarian intervention is all too Whiggish and all too white. By conceptualising humanitarian intervention in the way that they do, orthodox histories should be seen as entangled in debates about the origins of human rights but also, perhaps more crucially, debates about the various formations and reinventions of human rights. Alternative codifications of rights reveal the historical possibility of a Southern practice of what we would almost certainly call ‘humanitarian intervention’. The record of a radical Third World practice to save strangers from the atrocities of colonialism and extreme racism is also a record of Western states playing staunchly sovereigntist roles, of the West's late devotion to Westphalia. To sketch out such a counterhistory is to argue the following: at a threshold moment in the international-political life of the Responsibility to Protect, it is the terms, range, and domain of the intervention debate that must be re-formulated and re-evaluated.

Humanitarian Intervention

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Caplan
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Future Development ◽  
Humanitarian Intervention ◽  
Responsibility To Protect ◽  
Real Effect ◽  
General Decline ◽  
Humanitarian Crises ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
The Way

States – Western ones, at least – have given increased weight to human rights and humanitarian norms as matters of international concern, with the authorization of legally binding enforcement measures to tackle humanitarian crises under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. These concerns were also developed outside the UN Security Council framework, following Tony Blair’s Chicago speech and the contemporaneous NATO action over Kosovo. This gave rise to international commissions and resulted, among other things, in the emergence of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P) doctrine. The adoption of this doctrine coincided with a period in which there appeared to be a general decline in mass atrocities. Yet R2P had little real effect – it cannot be shown to have caused the fall in mass atrocities, only to have echoed it. Thus, the promise of R2P and an age of humanitarianism failed to emerge, even if the way was paved for future development.

Some Literary References to the History of the Gurjara-Pratihāras Mahendrapāla and Mahipāla

1964 ◽  
Vol 96 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-17
Author(s):  
M. L. Nigham
Keyword(s):  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Archaeological Remains ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
Political Condition ◽  
Indian History ◽  
Northern India ◽  
The North ◽  
History Of

The Gurjara-Pratihāras were the last Hindu power of early Indian history who strove to unify the whole of Āryāvarta under one parasol, and the dynasty produced a brilliant galaxy of monarchs such as Nāgabhaṭa, Mihira-Bhoja, Mahendrapāla and Mahipāla who, apart from their military genius, were great patrons of learning and art. The archaeological remains of this dynasty have been brought to light from Pihova (Pṛthūdaka) in the north to Deogarh and Gwalior in the south, and from Kathiawar in the west to Bihar and Bengal in the east. Rājaśēkhara, the great Sanskrit poet-dramatist, was the spiritual preceptor (upādhyaya) of Mahendrapāla alias Nirbhayanarendra. He continued to grace the Pratihāra court till the reign of Mahipāla, the son and successor of Mahendrapāla, in whose presence the play Bālabhārata was staged. Besides the Bālabhārata, three other dramas, Bālarāmāyaṇa, Karpūramañjarī and Viddhaśālabhañjikā, and Kāvyamīmāṃsā, an elaborate work on poetics, were written by the same author. Being closely associated with the political life of the court, Rājaśēkhara's dramas, although based on conventional themes of love, give us glimpses of the political condition of northern India at that time.

Part VI Human Rights and General International Law, Ch.34 The Use of International Force to Prevent or Halt Atrocities: From Humanitarian Intervention to the Responsibility to Protect

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thakur Ramesh
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Humanitarian Intervention ◽  
United Nations Security Council ◽  
Responsibility To Protect ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Understanding ◽  
Historical Origins

This article examines the history of the use of international force for preventing atrocities and human rights abuses. It analyses the concept of humanitarian intervention in the context of the historical origins of sovereignty and the reasons behind the shift to the use of the term responsibility to protect (R2P). It evaluates the progress of R2P from its unanimous endorsement in 2005 to its implementation in Libya in 2011. This article also discusses the role of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in implementing R2P and the General Assembly in refining the concept and building political understanding and support for the norm.

The Later History of the Varangian Guard: Some Notes

1947 ◽  
Vol 37 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 39-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. M. Dawkins
Keyword(s):  
Black Sea ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Alps ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Way

The famous Varangian corps of mercenary soldiers in the service of the emperors of Byzantium is well known in its earlier days to have been recruited from the Scandinavian north. Forging their way from their own inhospitable lands the Northmen, first of all from Sweden, reached the Volga and the lands even to. the south of the Caspian; later by the ‘East Way’, called also the ‘Varangian Way’, they came down through Russia by way of the Dnieper and the Black Sea to Constantinople, first as pirates, then as traders, and finally as the most trusted guards of the imperial person. Later again they ventured on the all-sea route, the ‘West Way’, and also opened a path across Europe, either over the Alps or by way of Provence, and so through Italy: this was the ‘Southern Way’, otherwise called the ‘Way by Rome’ But in the eleventh century, in the first half of which Harald Hardrada, the most famous of all the Varangians, was in the imperial service, there was a certain change; recruits began to come increasingly from England.The first actual mention of the English name seems to be in a bull issued by the Emperor Alexios in 1088 to Christodoulos, the Abbot of the Monastery on Patmos.

Bulgarian Turkish Emigration and Return

1992 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 342-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darina Vasileva
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Total Population ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ethnic Conflicts ◽  
Totalitarian Regime ◽  
Lasting Effect ◽  
History Of

The history of the emigration of Bulgarian Muslim Turks to Turkey is more than a century old. The violation of the human rights of ethnic Turks by the totalitarian regime during the 1980s resulted in the most massive and unpredictable migration wave ever seen in that history. This article examines the complexity of factors and motivations of the 1989 emigration which included almost half of the ethnic Turks living in Bulgaria and constituting until that time 9 percent of the total population. The author considers the strong and long-lasting effect of this emigration—followed by the subsequent return of half of the emigrants after the fall of the regime—both on Bulgaria's economy and on the political life of the society. The article aims also at providing a better understanding of the character of ethnic conflicts in posttotalitarian Eastern Europe.

Scandinavian Thing-steads

Antiquity ◽  
1928 ◽  
Vol 2 (7) ◽  
pp. 328-336
Author(s):  
F. Wildte
Keyword(s):  
Judicial System ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Law ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Many ◽  
Judicial Systems

The Scandinavian peoples emerge into the light of history much later than their neighbours in the South and the West, the Teutons on the Continent and in England. It was only through the Viking raids that the Nordic peoples came into touch with the rest of Europe, and were gradually converted to Christianity. Long after the introduction of the Christian faith they preserved many peculiar and archaic traits. Thus the Nordic peoples retained, with great tenacity and conservatism, their ancient judicial system. This system has therefore been the object of considerable interest even outside Scandinavia, although the manuscripts through which it has become known are much later than the corresponding documents of other Teutonic nations.An investigation of the localities where justice was dispensed in former ages is of importance not only for the history of civilization, but also as a complement to the study of oral and written tradition, and thus to the history of law itself. In view of the many points of similarity between the judicial systems of the various Teutonic nations, some notes on the Thing-steads, or places of assembly, in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, may perhaps be of interest to English-speaking readers.

scholarly journals 32. Humanitarian intervention in world politics

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex J. Bellamy ◽  
Nicholas J. Wheeler
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Humanitarian Intervention ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
World Politics ◽  
The Other ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
The West ◽  
Protection Goals

This chapter examines the role of humanitarian intervention in world politics. It considers how we should resolve tensions when valued principles such as order, sovereignty, and self-determination come into conflict with human rights; and how international thought and practice has evolved with respect to humanitarian intervention. The chapter discusses the case for and against humanitarian intervention and looks at humanitarian activism during the 1990s. It also analyses the responsibility to protect principle and the use of force to achieve its protection goals in Libya in 2011. Two case studies are presented, one dealing with humanitarian intervention in Darfur and the other with the role of Middle Eastern governments in Operation Unified Protector in Libya in 2011. There is also an Opposing Opinions box that asks whether the West should intervene in Syria to protect people there from the Islamic State (ISIS).

scholarly journals Religious Freedom Not For All: Homeland Approach

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (19) ◽  
pp. 185-188
Author(s):  
Oleksandr Zavaliy
Keyword(s):  
Religious Freedom ◽  
State Building ◽  
The State ◽  
Modern History ◽  
The West ◽  
Pope Francis ◽  
History Of ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
The Way

The modern history of Ukraine shows that the nation seeks to advance on the European path and meet the level of civilization development of the West. In this state of affairs, one can not ignore the rights of citizens, which are a state-building principle for European communities, namely, the primordial rights and freedoms of its citizens. The European face of Ukraine is formed from many components, including the importance of religious relations in the state, within which the freedom of citizens in general is determined. In 2015, Pope Francis recalled that religious freedom is "a fundamental right that forms the way by which we interact socially and personally with people who are around us, whose religious views may differ from ours."

Palestine, the Third World, and the UN as Seen from a Special Commission

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lori Allen
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Third World ◽  
Special Committee ◽  
Emancipatory Politics ◽  
Occupied Territories ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Third World ◽  
Global War ◽  
Palestinian Territory

This chapter examines the United Nations's engagement with Palestine through its Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Population of the Occupied Territories (“Special Committee”) in a broader Third World context of “global war against the forces of imperialism and neo-imperialism.” It first discusses the history of Palestinian commitment to UN special commissions as a means to the just resolution of the conflict with Israel before turning to the symbolic aspects of UN politics. It then provides a background on the UN Special Committee, whose stated mission was to investigate human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. In particular, it considers the key challenges faced by the committee, such as the refusal of the government of Israel to cooperate with it. The chapter suggests that UN special commissions came and went in Palestine, but little progress was made in terms of an emancipatory politics.

Greek identities and French politics in the Revue des Deux Mondes (1846–1900)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ourania Polycandrioti
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The West ◽  
French Politics ◽  
French School ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
The Way

The longevity of the magazine Revue des Deux Mondes, its position among the French magazines, its contents, contributors and directors, all prominent scholars of France, establish the Revue des Deux Mondes as an important record of intellectual and political life in the nineteenth century, as well as of the way in which the West in general and France in particular regarded contemporary Greece during the same period. This study aims to provide an overview of all Greek-themed articles in the magazine from 1829 to 1899, with the purpose of exploring the various aspects of ancient and contemporary Hellenism, in relation to France’s foreign policies as well as the activities of the French School at Athens.

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