Suchergebnisse

The rise of humanitarian intervention -- US predominance and the logic of interventionism -- The origins of the Yugoslav conflict -- Germany drops a match: external intervention and the beginning of civil war -- The war spreads to Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Only the weak rely on diplomacy : the Clinton administration faces Bosnia -- Kosovo and the reaffirmation of American power -- Conclusion : first do no harm

The issue of humanitarian intervention has proven a vexing one of the political left during the post-Cold War era. In light mass violence in Rwanda, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Darfur, Libya, and Syria, many leftists abandoned their traditional opposition to militarism and argued for robust military intervention by the United States and its allies to alleviate these crises. Critics argued in response that interventionism would end up worsening the very crises it was supposed to resolve. These issues were recently debated at the Oxford Union Society at Oxford University on March 4, 2019. The participants were Michael Chertoff -- former Secretary of Homeland Security during the presidency of George W. Bush and coauthor of the USA Patriot Act – who presented a qualified defense of humanitarian intervention; and myself, who argued against the practice.

A review essay on a book by Alfred W. McCoy, Policing America's Empire: The United States, the Philippines, and the Rise of the Surveillance State (Madison, University of Wisconsin Press.