Humanitarian intervention : crafting a workable doctrine : three options presented as memoranda to the President.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Council on Foreign Relations.

Series:

Council on Foreign Relations policy initiatives ; 4.

Council policy initiatives series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Intervention (International law).

Peacekeeping forces--United States.

Peacekeeping forces.

Humanitarian assistance, American.

Disaster relief--United States.

Disaster relief.

United States.

United States--Military policy.

Military policy.

Physical Description:

x, 94 pages ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Council on Foreign Relations ; [Washington, D.C.] : distributed by Brookings Institution Press, [2000]

Summary:

More than any previous episode, the Kosovo crisis posed serious challenges to the concept of state sovereignty. It raised profound questions about when and where the United States and other states would use military force to curb massive abuses of human rights. And it presented grave issues regarding the authority of the United Nations to make the essential decisions for or against such intervention on the territory of a member state.

In a world scarred by ethnic conflict and frequent violence by governments and organized insurgencies against their own citizens, is humanitarian intervention the wave of the future? Or, as one senior NATO official declared, has Kosovo been "such a resounding success that no one in the alliance wants to repeat it ever again"? Is it possible to frame a workable doctrine to guide policy through the range of humanitarian crises that are bound to unfold in the 21st century?

This volume addresses the dilemmas of humanitarian intervention through three diverse arguments, emphasizing, respectively, the moral imperative to intervene against massive abuses, the strategic case to refrain from intervention except in the extreme circumstance of genocide, and the political prerequisite to balance moral and strategic claims on American power. The arguments are offered as memoranda that senior executive officials might prepare for a president, introduced by a cover analysis providing general context and perspective.

The Council on Foreign Relations presents these divergent assessments to provoke and inform the vital public debate over future U.S. decisions regarding humanitarian intervention.

Contents:

Memorandum to the President / Arnold Kanter

Memorandum to the President: Secretary of State / Holly J. Burkhalter

Memorandum to the President: Secretary of Defense / Dov S. Zakheim

Memorandum to the President: Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff' / Stanley A. McChrystal

Background materials: Appendix A: The Clinton Doctrine; Appendix B: Presidential Decision Directive 56 on 'Complex Contingency Operations'; Appendix C: The U.N. Secretary-General on humanitarian intervention.

Notes:

"A Council policy initiative."

"Alton Frye, Project Director."

ISBN:

0876092695

OCLC:

45308899