Re-Defining Humanitarian Intervention

Humanitarian intervention is threat or use of force by a state, group of

states, or international organization primarily for the purpose of
protecting the nationals of the target state from widespread deprivations
of internationally recognized human rights (Murphy 1996: 1112).

Humanitarian intervention should be understood to encompass non-
consensual, non-forcible methods, namely intervention undertaken
without military force to alleviate mass human suffering within sovereign
borders (Scheffer 1992: 266).

International intervention is the transgression of a units realm of
jurisdiction, conducted by other units in an order, acting singly or
collectively. Interventions are always transformative; they are
transgressions to reconfigure identities, institutions, and practices. (Reus-
Smith 2013: 1059)

Fig. 1: US and Humanitarian Intervention in Libya
Concluding Questions
Conceptualization of Human Rights
Accountability of Multilateral Organizations
Inherent contradiction in the framework of
humantarian intervention; sees all states as
sovereign.
HI as a concept of modernity?

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