16. Humanitarian Intervention and Peace Operations

2018 ◽  
pp. 273-290
Author(s):  
Sheena Chestnut Greitens
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Humanitarian Intervention ◽  
Peace Operations ◽  
Military Interventions ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Humanitarian Interventions ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Military

This chapter analyses the dynamics of humanitarian intervention and peace operations. It begins with a discussion of the changing nature of peacekeeping since the cold war and how peacekeeping expanded in the post-cold war period, creating demand, opportunities, and incentives for intervention that resulted in an unprecedented increase in the number and scale of military interventions by United Nations forces. Today, humanitarian interventions are larger, more complex affairs. The chapter goes on to examine how post-cold war operations shaped peacekeeping debates, peacekeeping since 2000, the benefts and challenges of the regionalization of peacekeeping, and evolving norms in contemporary peacekeeping. It also considers the politics of humanitarian intervention, especially at the UN Security Council, and how public opinion of humanitarian intervention is shaped by media coverage and casualties. Finally, it describes the military character of peace operations as well as problems and prospects surrounding humanitarian intervention and peace operations.

Italy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabrizio Coticchia
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
First Century ◽  
Military Interventions ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
The World ◽  
The Cold War

Since the end of the bipolar era, Italy has regularly undertaken military interventions around the world, with an average of 8,000 units employed abroad in the twenty-first century. Moreover, Italy is one of the principal contributors to the UN operations. The end of the cold war represented a turning point for Italian defence, allowing for greater military dynamism. Several reforms have been approved, while public opinion changed its view regarding the armed forces. This chapter aims to provide a comprehensive perspective of the process of transformation that occurred in post-cold-war Italian defence, looking at the evolution of national strategies, military doctrines, and the structure of forces. After a brief literature review, the study highlights the process of transformation of Italian defeshnce policy since 1989. Through primary and secondary sources, the chapter illustrates the main changes that occurred, the never-ending cold-war legacies, and key challenges.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Rebecca Lissner
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Grand Strategy ◽  
Military Interventions ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
New Information ◽  
Strategic Adjustment ◽  
Grand Strategies ◽  
The Cold War

More than 75 years after the end of World War II, military interventions—rather than major wars—have emerged as a defining feature of contemporary geopolitics. Yet, for all the fierce policy debates over interventions and their lessons, scholars have largely ignored the systematic linkages between these smaller-scale wars and transformations in the grand strategies of states that prosecute them. This book develops a new theory—the informational theory of strategic adjustment—to explain why military interventions can be crucibles of grand strategy. It argues that, by prosecuting a military intervention, states glean rich and rare information about adversaries’ capabilities and intentions, as well as their own military power and cost tolerance. The uniquely costly nature of warfighting renders this data particularly credible. Amidst background conditions of intense interstate competition and pervasive uncertainty, states face strong incentives to reassess their grand strategies in light of this new information. This process of grand strategic updating begins with a reassessment of the strategic assumptions directly tested on the battlefield, but it doesn’t end there. Indeed, the grand strategic effects of military interventions are far-reaching because information conveyed via warfighting is widely extrapolated to related strategic assessments. This book demonstrates the plausibility of the informational theory of strategic adjustment in three historically detailed case studies that trace the evolution of American grand strategy over the course of the Cold War and into the early post–Cold War era: the Korean, Vietnam, and First Gulf Wars.

Humanitarian Intervention and International Security

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taylor B. Seybolt
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
Humanitarian Intervention ◽  
International System ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Positive Law ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Cold War

Humanitarian intervention is the use of military intervention in a state to achieve socioeconomic objectives, such as keeping people alive and communities functioning by providing basic necessities, without the approval of its authorities. There are three eras of humanitarian intervention: the entire time up to the end of World War II, the Cold War, and the post-Cold War period. These three eras are distinguished by differences in the structure of the international system. Ultimately, the Western intellectual tradition of just war is the foundation for contemporary international law governing armed conflict. It is grounded in natural law, which recognizes the right of sovereigns to use force to uphold the good of the human community, particularly in cases where unjust injury is inflicted on innocents. Eventually, a diverse body of literature on humanitarian intervention has developed. The contemporary debate focuses on the long-standing disagreement between positive law and natural law about coercive intervention. Political scientists use realist and constructivist paradigms to analyze the motives of intervening states and to argue for or against the practice. Proponents favor humanitarian intervention on the basis of legitimacy and the consequences of nonintervention. Opponents argue against intervention on the basis of illegitimacy, practical constraints, and negative consequences. Meanwhile, skeptics sympathize with the humanitarian impulse to help civilians but are troubled about methods and consequences.

The Genocide Convention and Cold War Humanitarian Intervention

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Dunne ◽  
Eglantine Staunton
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Humanitarian Intervention ◽  
Genocide Convention ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Host State ◽  
State Practice ◽  
History Of ◽  
State Consent ◽  
The Cold War

It is conventional in IR literature to observe a sharp break between the Cold War and post-Cold War phases in the evolution of human protection norms. The chapter revisits these arguments in conjunction with the cases of India in Pakistan, Vietnam in Cambodia, and Tanzania in Uganda, where unilateral interventions had humanitarian effects but neither humanitarian justifications nor external legitimation. The predominant view regarding these cases is correct; namely, no evidence can be found for the emergence of a norm of legitimate intervention for protection reasons (in the absence of host state consent). However, this perspective underestimates the extent to which there was a consolidation of norms regarding state responsibilities and how these influenced state practice during the post-1945 period. The end of the Cold War should be seen as less of a stark turning point in the history of responsible sovereignty than has previously been believed.

Regional Organizations

2018 ◽  
pp. 312-331
Author(s):  
Waheguru Pal Singh Sidhu
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Peace Operations ◽  
African Union ◽  
Regional Organizations ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Limited Role ◽  
Regional Partnership ◽  
The Cold War

The UN Charter provides a prominent role for ‘regional agencies or arrangements’ under Chapters VI and VIII. While regional actors played a limited role during the Cold War, the post-Cold War period has witnessed the regionalization of peace operations. Today regional organizations, particularly the African Union, play an equal if not more prominent role on the ground than the UN in peace operations. While the involvement of regional organizations offers several benefits to the overstretched UN, it also carries significant risks. Moreover, unless several proposed reforms are implemented, the effectiveness of UN-regional ‘partnership peacekeeping,’ or hybrid operations, is likely to remain impaired.

Armed Forces as a Geopolitics Instrument from a Historical and Contemporary Perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (34) ◽  
pp. 145-156
Author(s):  
Mateusz Ziętarski
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
World War ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Military ◽  
Second World ◽  
Contemporary Context

Geography can restrain states, or create possibilities to the political activity that states carry out. Following Carl von Clausewitz, one can point to the relation between politics and war. The famous Prussian general claimed that war is an extension of politics made by means of the armed forces. Questions should therefore be posed how geography restrains or stregthens the activity of the armed forces, and how geopolitics determines the functioning of the military. The following article shows the abovementioned imperative in the historical as well as contemporary context. The aim of the study is to place the armed forces in the geopolitical framework and to show the cause-and-effect relationship between the operations of the armed forces and geopolitics. The research is carried out on the time axis: the time analysis is divided into the period of the Second World War, the Cold War and the post-Cold War period.

scholarly journals Paradox of humanitarian intervention: A critical analysis of theory and practice

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 222
Author(s):  
Tadelech Bubamo Welde ◽  
Baiq L. S. W. Wardhani
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Humanitarian Intervention ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Political Ambition ◽  
Rigorous Analysis ◽  
Humanitarian Interventions ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Political Weapon ◽  
The Cold War

Since the end of the Cold War, thoughtlessness act in conducting ‘humanitarian interventions’ has posed analytical challenges for international relations academicians. Traditional security advocators have tried to distinguished implications of ‘humanitarianism’ based on their interest and how it helps state in regaining the outcome. This research identified motivation of state in conducting humanitarian intervention. There are growing studies, as expressed by the constructivist, that humanitarianism is states’ political weapon that shifted the involvement patterns of policymakers and actors in humanitarian interventions. On the other hand, primary criticism from realism stressed economic and political ambition behind humanitarian interventions and makes it impossible to be moral, ethical, and cosmopolitan. The objective of this study is to examine the practices, motives, and challenges of humanitarian interventions. Data gathered from published books and journals selected through rigorous analysis. The research finds that the failure of humanitarian interventions indicates the following: First, humanitarian interventions requires expensive cost in people’s life and other resources. Moreover, there is a moral obligation to save the victims.  Second, actors are engaged to operate the mission and has limited right to demonstrate their self-interest to protect the victims. Third is the issue of sovereignty and the subjected state’s willingness to integrate. To overcome the problem, government should promote global governance transformation and the cosmopolitanism nature between actors.

scholarly journals The Question of Legitimacy: Kenya's Recognition Policy of Governments under Moi during the Cold War – Eastern Africa Countries (1978-1990)

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 260-270
Author(s):  
Danvas Ogeto Mabeya
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Military Regime ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Military ◽  
Formal Recognition

During the 1970’s, majority of states, including Kenya followed the practice of recognizing states and not governments. In so doing, they downplayed the granting of formal recognition to new governments. Kenya’s policy, then, was clearly stated in parliament in 1971 when the then foreign affairs minister, Dr. Njoroge Mungai, was asked to comment on the Kenya government’s position on the military regime of General Idi Amin of Uganda. He stated, “Kenya could not afford to interfere with internal matters of another state nor let any state interfere with internal matters of Kenya.” However, during the Post–Cold War period, Kenya’s recognition policy underwent major transformations to include recognition of de jure governments. This study critically examines Kenya’s practice during and after the Cold War in a bid to reveal any distinct policy trends if any. The study aims to ascertain how, Kenya’s recognition policy, has largely, been formulated, articulated and exercised during Moi’s administration (1978-1990).

Rethinking Humanitarian-Military Interventions: Violence and Modernity in an Age of Globalisation

2017 ◽  
pp. 15-42
Author(s):  
Damian Grenfell
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Military Interventions ◽  
The West ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The Third ◽  
Local Populations ◽  
Liberal Peace ◽  
Liberal Ideology ◽  
The Cold War

In Chapter One Damian Grenfell argues that interventions are bound up with exogenous assertions of power that aim to reconfigure local populations not just in terms of a ‘liberal peace’, but also the creation of a sustainable form of modern nation-state. This tends to remain the case even in a period of intensifying globalisation. The first section of the chapter develops definitions of humanitarian-military interventions since the end of the Cold War and accounts for the massive expansion of capabilities that allow for the transgression of sovereignty during conflict. These interventions – as it is argued across the second section – reflect the dominance of the West in a post-Cold War world, as the deployment of material and discursive resources in sites of conflict conform largely to the contours of a liberal ideology. Building on and extending these arguments, the third section claims that critiques of liberal peace do not venture deeply enough into understanding power relations between interveners and the intervened. Rather, ideological assumptions of what constitutes ‘peace’ are manifestations of attempts to instill a particular form of modernity within societies, one that is clearly tied to the formation and consolidation of a nation-state.

Elephants of a Feather? The Role of ‘Justice’ in Canadian and American Cold War Military Interventions

2005 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Butler
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Military Interventions ◽  
The Us ◽  
Policy Objectives ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Military ◽  
Le Canada

Abstract. The polities of Canada and the United States are purportedly engaged in the process of value convergence; however, with regard to the legitimacy of foreign military intervention, divergence seems a more apt characterization. This research explores whether the current discord between Canada and the US reflects an aberration, or a realization of entrenched normative differences, over what justifies the use of military force. A series of regression models tests the hypothesis that justice considerations prompted the military interventions of both the US and Canada during the Cold War. The results herein fail to confirm this hypothesis, and in the process highlight the ways in which each country employed ‘justice’ selectively in the service of broader foreign policy objectives.Résumé. Les constitutions politiques des États-Unis et du Canada sont supposées tendre vers des valeurs communes; cependant, en ce qui concerne la reconnaissance de la légitimité des interventions militaires à l'étranger, la divergence semble être une caractérisation plus juste. Cette recherche explore si le désaccord actuel entre les États-Unis et le Canada reflète une certaine aberration ou la réalisation de différences profondément ancrées, concernant la justification de l'utilisation de la force militaire. Une série de modèles régressifs teste l'hypothèse selon laquelle des considérations de justice ont provoqué les interventions militaires des États-Unis et du Canada durant la guerre froide. Les résultats infirment cette hypothèse, et soulignent, en même temps, les façons dont chacun des deux pays a employé la “ justice ” de manière sélective pour servir des objectifs plus vastes de politique extérieure.

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