Humanitarian Intervention: The Situation After the 1999 Kosovo and the 2003 Iraqi Cases

Abstract

Humanitarian intervention entered into the agenda of the international community once again after the Kosovo intervention of 1999. It is not one of the exceptions to the prohibition of the use of force brought by the United Nations Charter. Despite all efforts to describe it as one of the justifiable causes of using force against another state in the 1970s and 1990s, both, states' attitudes and writers' elaborations show clearly that it is not accepted as a legal exception even by intervening states in Kosovo. After the invasion of Iraq in 2003, debates of humanitarian intervention were first dropped from the agenda, but later became a hot topic once again as one of the reasons for the invasion. Nevertheless, there is a small minority who consider the invasion as an example of humanitarian intervention and their argument is not persuasive because of the still insecure conditions in Iraq.

Keywords

Humanitarian intervention, Kosovo, Iraq, War against Terrorism, Responsibility to Protect

Citation

Keskin, Funda, “Humanitarian Intervention: The Situation After the 1999 Kosovo and the 2003 Iraqi Cases”, International Relations, Volume 3, Issue 12 (Winter 2006-2007), pp. 49-70.

Affiliations

• Funda Keskin, Assistant Professor Dr., Ankara University, Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of International Relations