November 2012

The Responsibility to Protect: Dilemmas of a New Norm
by Jennifer Welsh
“Although the humanitarian rationale for the use of force has gained legitimacy, the consensus around this legitimacy … has remained both narrow and fragile.”

Prudence Suggests Staying Out of Syria
by David W. Lesch
“We have learned time and again in history that arming opposition forces, while improving their chances in the near term, can militarize and divide a society in ways detrimental to its recovery.”

Libya and the Limits of Intervention
by Stephen Kinzer
“A dose of humility might lead Americans to realize that military intervention always produces unforeseen consequences.”

Beijing and Moscow Balk at “Interference”
by Rajan Menon
“China and Russia’s stance on Syria is a result of their convergent conceptions of sovereignty and humanitarian intervention, their compatible assessments of the nature of the conflict and of Western motives, and the lessons they learned from the Libyan uprising.”

African Conflicts, Western Activism
by Jason K. Stearns
“For much of Africa’s post-cold war history, the question has not been whether humanitarian intervention is a cover-up for big power interests, but why outsiders have been so reluctant to act.”

Perspective: On R2P, America Takes the Lead
by Thomas G. Weiss
“Never again” is not a reality. But as the Obama administration showed in Libya, US leadership can make prevention of mass atrocities a plausible proposition.

Books: Fighting Wars for Human Rights
by William W. Finan Jr.
A new book recounts the history of the international human rights movement, a movement that of late has become in part an instrument of war.

The Month in Review
by the editors of Current History
An international chronology of events in September 2012, country by country, day by day.

Responsibility to Protect: Essential Documents
by the editors of Current History
Excerpts from documents relating to humanitarian intervention.