Intervention

Question 0

What is R2P?

Answer 0

R2P is responsibility (not right) to protect.

2005 UN World Summit Outcome Document said R2P in response to:

• genocide
• crimes against humanity
• ethnic cleansing
• war crimes

Question 1

What is intervention?

Answer 1

One state trying to change the internal political composition of another country

• treaty of Westphalia (1648) –> for each region, it’s own religion
• difficult in civil wars, who speaks for the state?

Question 2

What are some tensions inherent in R2P?

Answer 2

Kosovo was “illegal but legitimate”

• UN enshrines sovereignty: “nothing contained in this charter shall authorize the UN to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state”
• but UNSC has resp to “maintain or restore international peace and security”

Question 3

What are some critiques of R2P?

Answer 3

Alon Kupperman: “the moral hazard of humanitarian intervention.”

Richard Betts: “the delusion of impartial intervention.”

Edward Luttwack: “Give war a chance.”