Human Rights and Military Intervention

by SOCIETY FOR APPLIED PHILOSOPHY

Was the bombing of Belgrade morally justified as an attempt to halt 'ethnic cleansing' in Kosovo'? Should Western states have tried to prevent the slaughter in Ruwanda? Are there, indeed, genuinely universal 'human rights' which could justify such interventions, or is the upholding of such rights simply the imposition of culturally specific values on other cultures? Is national sovereignty a necessary and legitimate impediment to intervention, or are we seeing the emergence of a 'new international order' in which national boundaries are less significant? These and related ethical and political questions are addressed from a wide variety of perspectives by the contributors to this book. The answers presented form important reading for students and researchers in philosophy and in international relations, and for anyone interested in the difficult questions about whether and when other states may intervene in a country's internal affairs in order to uphold human rights, and urgent questions about military intervention and human rights the contemporary world.

294 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2002