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Humanitarian Military Intervention
The Conditions for Success and Failure

Taylor B. Seybolt

Price: £40.00 (hardback)
ISBN-13: 978-0-19-925243-5
Publication date: 25 January 2007
312 pages, 234x156 mm
 Series: A SIPRI Publication
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Description
Military intervention in a conflict without a reasonable prospect of success is unjustifiable, especially when it is done in the name of humanity. Couched in the debate on the responsibility to protect civilians from violence and drawing on traditional 'just war' principles, the central premise of this book is that humanitarian military intervention can be justified as a policy option only if decision makers can be reasonably sure that intervention will do more good than harm.
This book asks, 'Have past humanitarian military interventions been successful?' It defines success as saving lives and sets out a methodology for estimating the number of lives saved by a particular military intervention. Analysis of 17 military operations in six conflict areas that were the defining cases of the 1990s-northern Iraq after the Gulf War, Somalia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda, Kosovo and East Timor-shows that the majority were successful by this measure.
In every conflict studied, however, some military interventions succeeded while others failed, raising the question, 'Why have some past interventions been more successful than others?' This book argues that the central factors determining whether a humanitarian intervention succeeds are the objectives of the intervention and the military strategy employed by the intervening states. Four types of humanitarian military intervention are offered: helping to deliver emergency aid, protecting aid operations, saving the victims of violence and defeating the perpetrators of violence. The focus on strategy within these four types allows an exploration of the political and military dimensions of humanitarian intervention and highlights the advantages and disadvantages of each of the four types.
Humanitarian military intervention is controversial. Scepticism is always in order about the need to use military force because the consequences can be so dire. Yet it has become equally controversial not to intervene when a government subjects its citizens to massive violation of their basic human rights. This book recognizes the limits of humanitarian intervention but does not shy away from suggesting how military force can save lives in extreme circumstances.

Readership: Scholars and students of strategic studies, international relations, humanitarian law, NGOS

Contents
1. Controversies about humanitarian military intervention
Humanitarian intervention debates
The structure of this book
2. Judging success and failure
What is success?
Counting people who do not die
A typology of humanitarian military intervention
Summary
3. Humanitarian Military interventions in the 1990s
State oppression of the Kurds in northern Iraq, 1991-96
State failure and famine in Somalia, 1991-95
Secession and ethnic expulsion in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1992-95
Genocide and civil war in Rwanda, 1994
Secessionist violence and ethnic expulsion in Kosovo, 1999
Independence and fear in East Timor, 1999-2000
Summary
4. Helping to deliver emergency aid
Strategies for delivering aid
Direct aid and logistics provision in the 1990s
Advantages and disadvantages of military intervention to protect aid operations
Summary
5. Protecting Humanitarian aid operations
Strategies for protecting aid operations
Protecting aid operations in the 1990s
Advantages and disadvantages of military intervention to protect aid operations
Summary
6. Saving the victims of violence
Strategies for protecting civilians
Saving the victims of violence in the 1990s
Advantages and disadvantages of military intervention to defeat the perpetrators of violence
Summary
7. Defeating the perpetrators of violence
Strategies for defeating the perpetrators of violence
Defeating the perpetrators of violence in the 1990s
Advantages and disadvantages of military intervention to defeat the perpetrators of violence
Summary
8. The prospects for success and the limitations of humanitarian intervention
Taking stock
Choosing among types and strategies
The limits of humanitarian military intervention
Concluding Comments

Authors, editors, and contributors


Taylor B. Seybolt, Assistant Professor, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs


Links to web resources and related information
More in the same subject area:
Political science & theory
International relations
Human rights
Peacekeeping operations

The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.

 
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