Interventions, Institutions, Regional & Ethnic Conflicts : Class Notes #2

Sovereignty  Sovereignty implies absolute control of a territory in a legal sense.  For realists  the key values in international politics are ORDER, STABILITY, and key institution is the balance of power.  So; INTERVENTION can be justified when it is necessary to maintain the balance of power and to maintain the order.

 Example:  In 1965 the US intervened in the Dominican Republic and in 1980s in Latin America on the grounds that there should be no more communist governments in the Western Hemisphere. Likewise, Soviet Union intervened to preserve communist governments in Eastern Europe.

 A good expample is: Brezhnev Doctrine: Right to intervene to preserve socialism in their sphere of influence.  Here the key point is  for realist justfiy INTREVENTIONS on the grounds that they preserve ORDER and prevented the possiblity of misunderstandings and miscalculations that might escalate the war; particluarly nuclear war.

For Cosmopolitans  The value is justice and the key institution is a “society of individuals”.  So intervention is justified.  It promotes individual justice and human rights.  How good is to be defined?  Liberal cosmopolitans (unlike conservative cosmopolitans) justified intervention against right-wing regimes such as Marcos dictatorship in Philippines or apartheid regime in South Africa.

 All cosmopolitans justify intervention if it promotes individual justice and human rights. However;  For State Moralists  the key value in international politics is the autonomy of the state and its people. & ** The key institution is a society of states with certain rules and international law.

EXCEPTIONS TO INTERVENTION  For Michael Walzer   Wars can be justified under 4 categories:  1. Pre-emptive intervention Threat must be imminent. If there is a clear and sufficient threat to a state’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. New US Doctrine: Preventive War in 2003 Iraq!!

 2. Exception to strict rule occurs when intervention is needed to balance a prior intervention.  If an intervention prevents local people from determining their their fate; a counter revolution rullifying the first intervention ca be justfiried. Then it restores local people’s own right to decide.

 3. Rescue people who are threatened with massacre and total destruction.  Tanzania invaded Uganda when a dictatorial leader was slaughtering large number of people and it justified its intervention.  Note relutance of Western countries in intervening in Rwanda in 1994 or sending troops to Bosnia between , or in Liberia in 1996.

 4. Right to assit secessionist movements when they have demonstrated their representative character.  If a group of people within a country has clearly demonstrated that they want to be separate country; it is legitimate to assist its secession because doing so helps the group to pool its rights and develop its autonomy as a nation.  This issue reveals the question of self-determination!  In Caucasus, Azerbaijanians, Georgians, Armenians, Abhazians they demaned states on the basis of self- determination.

International Law & Organizations  UN CHARTER, Article 2 1. The Organization and its Members, in pursuit of the Purposes stated in Article 1, shall act in accordance with the following Principles. 2. The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members. 3. All Members, in order to ensure to all of them the rights and benefits resulting from membership, shall fulfill in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with the present Charter. 4.All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered. 5.All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.

UN Charter Article 2, Paragraph 7 says; 7. Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement measures under Chapter Vll.

 Wars/ use of force is outlawed (forbidden) under the UN Charter with two exceptions!  Here they are 

CHAPTER VII: ACTION WITH RESPECT TO THREATS TO THE PEACE, BREACHES OF THE PEACE, AND ACTS OF AGGRESSION  Article 39  The Security Council shall determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression and shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with Articles 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and security.  The Security Council may decide what measures not involving the use of armed force are to be employed to give effect to its decisions, and it may call upon the Members of the United Nations to apply such measures. These may include complete or partial interruption of economic relations and of rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic, radio, and other means of communication, and the severance of diplomatic relations.  Article 42  Should the Security Council consider that measures provided for in Article 41 would be inadequate or have proved to be inadequate, it may take such action by air, sea, or land forces as may be necessary to maintain or restore international peace and security. Such action may include demonstrations, blockade, and other operations by air, sea, or land forces of Members of the United Nations.

 Article 51  Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security. Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of self- defence shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and security.

Case Study: Conflict in the Middle East  Nationalism  Religion or  Balance of power politics ? Arab-Israeli Conflict Parties to the Dispute:  Palestine  Israel  Egypt  Syria  Jordan  Lebanon