GEOG 140 Chapter 15: GEOG140PoliticalGeographyWeek8EvansandSahnounArticle
Document Summary
Coercive action against a state to protect people within its borders from suffering grave harm. There are no rules as to how humanitarian cases should be handled. Example: un intervention in conflicts in somalia (1993), rwanda (1994), and bosnia (1995) were misconceived and poorly resourced. Thus, there was little action taken to actually intervene in time to save civilian casualties. Humanitarian does not mean human rights, it means military activity. Military intervention should be used in the scope and limits of countries" rights to act in self-defense - not their right, or obligation, to intervene elsewhere to protect peoples other than their own (e. g. afghanistan, iraq). Example: secretary-general kofi annan (ghana) supports military intervention on human rights grounds, but opposers contend that military intervention violates state sovereignty. Instead, of the argument being about the international community"s right to intervene, it should be concerned about its. Responsibility to protect civilians from genocide, ethnic cleansing, etc.
