Pandora's box?: humanitarian intervention and international law

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aidan Hehir
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Law ◽  
Humanitarian Intervention ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Cold War Era ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Invasion Of Iraq

The three books reviewed here all address the question of the efficacy of international law and advance concerns about its future trajectory, albeit in contrasting ways. As has been well documented, the role of international law – specifically in the regulation of the use of force – has undergone significant scrutiny in the post-Cold War era. To a much greater extent than during the Cold War, contemporary conflicts and crises are invariably discussed with reference to international law, and the legality of a particular use of force has become a significant factor in assessing its legitimacy; one need only think of the importance placed on the legality of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. This increase in prominence suggests that international law has become more important, and unsurprisingly those used to the discipline's previous role as exotic curio have welcomed this sudden promotion (Robertson, 2000).

Part 2 The Post-Cold War Era (1990–2000), 47 The Kosovo Crisis—1999

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franchini Daniel ◽  
Tzanakopoulos Antonios
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Law ◽  
Humanitarian Intervention ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
International Community ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Humanitarian Crises ◽  
Cold War Era ◽  
Nato Intervention

This contribution discusses the forcible intervention by NATO against Serbia in 1999 in response to the situation in Kosovo. It sets out the facts and background of the crisis, along with the legal positions of the main protagonists and the reactions of the international community. It then proceeds to survey the debates surrounding the legality of the intervention and to assess the soundness of the legal justifications put forward by states and authors. Finally, it discusses the precedential value of the intervention, especially in view of claims of the existence or emergence of a rule or principle of international law permitting the unilateral use of force in response to humanitarian crises. The contribution concludes that the NATO intervention has significant precedential value in that it confirms the unlawfulness of forcible unilateral humanitarian intervention.

Cold War Legacies: The Migration and Transformation of Popular/Unpopular Culture

2007 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 137-143
Author(s):  
Roger Chapman
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Cold War ◽  
International Context ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
American Popular Culture ◽  
The Past ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
Cold War Era ◽  
The Cold War

This article reviews two recent collections of essays that focus on the role of popular culture in the Cold War. The article sets the phenomenon into a wide international context and shows how American popular culture affected Europe and vice versa. The essays in these two collections, though divergent in many key respects, show that culture is dynamic and that the past as interpreted from the perspective of the present is often reworked with new meanings. Understanding popular culture in its Cold War context is crucial, but seeing how the culture has evolved in the post-Cold War era can illuminate our view of its Cold War roots.

Part 1 The Cold War Era (1945–89), 5 The Soviet Intervention in Hungary—1956

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lieblich Eliav
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Law ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Warsaw Pact ◽  
Jus Ad Bellum ◽  
Soviet Invasion ◽  
The Cold War

In late October 1956, the Soviet army crushed a burgeoning rebellion in Hungary, ostensibly upon the invitation of the Hungarian government, and allegedly in conformity with the provisions of the Warsaw Pact. While the intervention was widely condemned, international law could not prevent the Soviet invasion nor secure the USSR's withdrawal from Hungary. Seven decades later, this Chapter analyses the Soviet intervention under jus ad bellum. It focuses on the positions of relevant actors in real-time, as well as on the enduring aspects of the affair. As the Chapter reveals, the Hungary intervention presented dilemmas that plague the law on the use of force even in contemporary times. It raised questions that remain burning today, such as the role of consent in legalizing external forcible intervention, the ability of international law to face superpowers, and the dialectics between effectiveness and legitimacy in the determination of lawful authority during internal strife.

Part 1 The Cold War Era (1945–89), 15 The Indian Intervention into (East) Pakistan—1971

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kritsiotis Dino
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Humanitarian Intervention ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Jus Ad Bellum ◽  
Cold War Era ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Further Development

This contribution discusses the 1971 Indian intervention in east Pakistan. It sets out the facts and context of the crisis, the legal positions of the main protagonists (India and Pakistan), and the international community’s reactions. It then tests the legality of the Indian intervention against the international legal framework governing the use of force as it stood at the time of the events. The final section examines if, and to what extent, the case has had an impact on the further development of the jus ad bellum, in particular whether it is a precedent for humanitarian intervention.

Changing Jus Cogens Through State Practice? The Case of the Prohibition of the Use of Force and its Exceptions

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Orakhelashvili
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Law ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
State Practice ◽  
Strict Requirement ◽  
Jus Cogens ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Way

This chapter examines how international law treats state practice on the actual or claimed exceptions to and derogations from the peremptory prohibition of the use of force. It looks at attempts to fragment or alter the content of Article 2(4) of the UN Charter which prohibits the use of force, from the Cold War period to the post-Cold-War period. The discussion begins by assessing the nature and relevance of state practice before turning to the rules of jus cogens and the way in which they interact with state practice. More specifically, the chapter analyses the question of whether the conflict between state practice and jus cogens goes to derogation from, or modification of, jus cogens norms. Finally, it considers the argument against the jus cogens status of the prohibition of the use of force and the implications of the strict requirement of uniformity inherent in jus cogens and its non-derogability.

The ‘New War’ on Terror, Cosmopolitanism and the ‘Just War’ Revival

2008 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Dexter
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Law ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Just War ◽  
Humanitarian Intervention ◽  
Bush Administration ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
American Century ◽  
Cold War Era

AbstractThe post-Cold War era has seen the return of the ‘good war’ and a move away from legal pacifism – the control of war through international law – to ‘just war’ theorizing. This article is concerned with the re-legitimization of warfare witnessed within the post-Cold War security paradigm that is being justified via humanitarian claims. It aims to highlight the difficult relationship that has developed since the commencement of the Bush administration's ‘war on terror’ between the cosmopolitan beliefs of those who have long argued for legal and legitimate humanitarian intervention, and the cosmopolitanism being espoused by the neo-conservatives of the Bush administration and the Project for the New American Century.

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