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Humanitarian Intervention: Ideas in Action

Humanitarian Intervention: Ideas in Action adds a very concise yet rigorous and comprehensive volume to the abundant literature on intervention. Drawing on over two decades of research on humanitarian action, Thomas Weiss’s book synthesizes both the theory and practice of humanitarian intervention. Weiss’s volume consists of five richly researched, highly accessible, and roughly equal-in-length chapters. A very brief introduction points to the disconnect between political reality and the rhetoric of rescuing civilians caught in war zones, launching the central question: ‘Are we at the dawn of a new normative era but in the dusk of the bullish days of humanitarian intervention’ (2)? To answer this, Weiss begins by examining the elements essential to understanding the intervention debate in Chapter 1. After exploring the contested notion of humanitarian intervention itself, Weiss resorts to a methodical and yet very accessible review of the scope and significance of both sovereignty (with its corollary, nonintervention) and human rights. His argument that limits to sovereignty are now widely accepted introduces one of the strongest analyses in this chapter, of the nature of change and continuity in world politics. While broadening interpretations of threats to international peace and security, the right of self-determination, and the collapse of state authority account for significant change, substantial continuity, Weiss argues, emanates from the centrality of state decision making and the lack of an overriding central authority. Since empirical background is also required for grasping the intervention controversy, in Chapter 2 Weiss embarks on a historical overview of past cases of humanitarian intervention, ranging from colonial ‘humanitarian’ ones to those in three ongoing crises, in the DRC, Uganda, and Darfur. Four trends emerge from the interventions of the 1990s: more legitimate and more multilateral operations, a Security Council willing to authorize interventions in cases of civil wars or substantial flows of refugees, and the lack of UN operational capacities, which translated into ‘subcontracting’ to coalitions of the willing and regional arrangements. And yet, despite such trends and the new discourse about the responsibility to protect (R2P), ‘doing nothing while condoning massive suffering in [ongoing crises]’ (52) illustrates the lack of any new imperative to save strangers.