The Ethics of Humanitarian Intervention: An Introduction

Few topics generate as much controversy and debate as armed humanitarian intervention. Military force involves death and destruction, as well as interfering in other countries’ domestic affairs. But, crucially, non-intervention is also controversial. When confronted with humanitarian crises abroad, many feel that outsiders are not only justified in using force to halt the abuses, but that they must do so. The Ethics of Humanitarian Intervention: An Introduction offers a guide to these ethical debates.

In clear and informative style Jonathan Parry explores the following topics:

The morality of defending others, including the ‘responsibility to protect’ (R2P).
State sovereignty and self-determination as barriers to intervention.
The possibility of consensual intervention.
Just causes for intervention: what kinds of human rights abuses warrant intervention?
The effectiveness of intervention: does it work in practice?
Alternatives to intervention, including aiding rebels, economic sanctions, and providing aid.
Whether there is a duty to intervene.

Examples of intervention – including the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Liberia, and Libya – are used to illustrate the ethical dilemmas in question. The arguments of important theorists of intervention, such as John Stuart Mill, Michael Walzer and Jeff McMahan, are also explained clearly and critically. Each chapter concludes with questions for discussion and reflection. The Ethics of Humanitarian Intervention: An Introduction is ideal reading for students and researchers in philosophy, applied ethics, politics and international relations.