Abstract

All over the world internal conflicts take place where hundreds and thousands of innocent people suffer from human rights abuse, often committed by the state, or one or more of the parts in the conflict. In some instances the situations of human rights abuse are so grave and systematic that it can only be described as genocide.

How can and will the international community respond to these situations? In this research, the researcher will take a closer look at the concept of the politics humanitarian intervention.

The aim of the research will be to provide answers to the question: Under which conditions, will there be humanitarian interventions and why the international community chose to intervene in some states and do not Intervene in others?

The cases of humanitarian interventions taking place during the 1990s included in this project are all cases where the international community, through the UN but led by the United States, have intervened with military force as a reaction to humanitarian crisis within another state.

The question the researcher want to ask in this research is  what made the international community decide to initiate a humanitarian intervention in some states and do not initiate the same humanitarian intervention in another States even when faced with the same situation.

CHAPTER ONE

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to Study  

The concept of a humanitarian intervention is a fairly new concept in the context of international politics. While intervention is a fairly common occurrence in history; recently they become increasingly less accepted as an instrument of foreign policy. The concept of the invulnerability of the sovereignty of the state was especially strong during the last decades in the cold war. There was no morally acceptable reason for any state to interfere in the politics of any state. This had only changed recently.

When sovereignty was rethought as a concept that not only included certain rights for the state but also included responsibilities. This also meant that if any state would fail to meet this responsibility, the other states in the international community would have the responsibility to intervene for humanitarian reasons.

The last two decades have seen many smaller or larger humanitarian crises, most noteworthy among them the events that unfolded in Libya and Syria in the wake of the Arab spring in both countries initially peaceful protest resulted in violent opposition against local regimes that led to prolonged fighting, causing many deaths and caused incredible suffering for the population of these states.

In both conflict the number of civilian deaths and displaced persons rose quickly. although the situation seem to be similarly dire, a humanitarian intervention has only happened in Libya so far and while such as intervention has not been discussed for Syria it seems unlikely that a humanitarian intervention is going to happen there in the nearer future. There has been a debate among the scholars of international relations whether humanitarian intervention actually exists and under what condition they are likely to happen.

There are two intentions for this paper first the researcher want to outline possible motives states could have, when the decide for or against their participation in such a humanitarian intervention. Secondly the researcher wants to test these theoretical motives in a case study, in order to demonstrate how these theoretical motives could play out in the politics of humanitarian interventions

1.2 Statement of Problem

Humanitarian interventions were brought about by states across borders with the intent of ending severe and widespread of human rights violations. The issues here are why states decide to intervene in some countries and not intervene in others, even when face with similar situation.

From the forgoing, the following research questions were raised by the researcher?

1.3 Research Question

What are the key elements that determine the international community to intervene or not?

• National interest
• Political ties and proximity
• international system itself

Check out: International Relations Project Topics with Materials