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Full-Text Articles in International Relations
From Retribution To Reconciliation, From Spoiler To Peace Envoy, Christine Bell
From Retribution To Reconciliation, From Spoiler To Peace Envoy, Christine Bell
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Is there a tension between justice and peace? That debate I leave to my co-panelists, because the most interesting and important thing about this month's centerpiece, without a doubt, is not its well-judged (if slightly ill-informed) take on the ICC, but the name of the author at its end.
April Roundtable: Responsibility To Protect And Human Rights Protection In The Ivory Coast, Introduction, Claudia Fuentes
April Roundtable: Responsibility To Protect And Human Rights Protection In The Ivory Coast, Introduction, Claudia Fuentes
Human Rights & Human Welfare
An annotation of:
Article under review: “The Case for Intervention in the Ivory Coast” by Corinne Dufka. Foreign Policy. March 25 2011.
A Rights-Based Approach To Global Injustice, Brooke Ackerly
A Rights-Based Approach To Global Injustice, Brooke Ackerly
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Is reflection on global injustice part of the everyday lives of those who live in global privilege? Or does privilege let us wait to raise concerns about justice only when the media bring the graphic images of genocide and tragedy to our family rooms?
Pandora’S Box Of Humanitarian Intervention, Edzia Carvalho
Pandora’S Box Of Humanitarian Intervention, Edzia Carvalho
Human Rights & Human Welfare
“The Case for Intervention in the Ivory Coast” reminded me of the discussion that my undergraduate students had during the previous academic term on the conundrums surrounding humanitarian intervention. They innately responded to the intense suffering of individuals and groups facing gross human rights violations and initially argued that inaction in the face of suffering cannot be justified on any grounds. However, with their international relations hats on, many of them soon realized that putting an end to such a state of affairs is not as easy or straightforward as they had hoped.
A Structural Solution To Africa’S Wayward Presidents, Devin K. Joshi
A Structural Solution To Africa’S Wayward Presidents, Devin K. Joshi
Human Rights & Human Welfare
The current crisis in the Ivory Coast unfortunately resembles a number of crises in Western and Central Africa over the last few decades. Whereas the international community has generally been more willing to intervene in Europe and the Middle East, there has been a tendency to “wait and watch” while humanitarian crises unfold in middle Africa. In the last several years, as in the Ivory Coast right now, however, global awareness of the brutality of such crises has expanded tremendously.
Double Standards Demystified, Jonas Claes
Double Standards Demystified, Jonas Claes
Human Rights & Human Welfare
At the time Ms. Corinne Dufka’s op-Ed about the crisis in Côte D’Ivoire appeared, few would have predicted that three days later UN troops, with the support of the French military, would act forcefully to protect civilians and tip the balance in favor of the fighters loyal to Alassane Ouattara, eventually leading to the arrest of Laurent Gbagbo. The odds were not favoring this scenario.
We Do Indeed Reap What We Sow, Walter Lotze
We Do Indeed Reap What We Sow, Walter Lotze
Human Rights & Human Welfare
When violence first broke out in Tunisia in January 2011, few observers would have predicted that waves of unrest would engulf North Africa and the Arab world. When demonstrations swiftly spread to Algeria, Sudan, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, and Jordan, observers hastened to place bets on which regime would be the next to fall. That Hosni Mubarak would be felled next came perhaps as no surprise; Egypt had for years been on a knife’s edge, liberalizing and modernizing society while closing all space for political and social participation. Most analysts then turned their attention to Sudan, Yemen, and Bahrain, predicting that …
March Roundtable: Libya And The Responsibility To Protect, Introduction, Claudia Fuentes
March Roundtable: Libya And The Responsibility To Protect, Introduction, Claudia Fuentes
Human Rights & Human Welfare
An annotation of:
Article under review: “It’s Time to Intervene” by Shadi Hamid. Slate. February 23 2011.
Feminism And Democracy, Louis Edgar Esparza
Feminism And Democracy, Louis Edgar Esparza
Human Rights & Human Welfare
After work on December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks walked onto a bus that was to take her home that night. She ended up on a trip to jail instead, for refusing to give her seat to a white passenger. The event triggered resistance to bus segregation, the founding of the Montgomery Improvement Association, and the election of the then-unknown Dr. Martin Luther King as its leader. The success of the campaign is an integral battle in our historical retellings of the US African American Civil Rights Movement. Fewer recount the sexual harassment against black women by white …
Is It Really Time To Intervene In Libya?, Christina Cerna
Is It Really Time To Intervene In Libya?, Christina Cerna
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Shadi Hamid, in “It’s Time to Intervene,” suggests that the international community—specifically, the United States, the United Nations, and NATO—must intervene in Libya because Muammar Gaddafi has declared that he is ready and willing to slaughter his own people if his survival depends on it. The author considered Gaddafi’s speech otherwise “bizarre” and “incoherent.”
I Will Survive, Robert Funk
I Will Survive, Robert Funk
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Academics do not often quote 70s disco tunes. At least not in print. But if there is one thing that has been striking about the events in Libya in recent weeks—and indeed looking back over decades—it is the sheer ability of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to survive. He is, perhaps with Fidel Castro, the world’s greatest survivor. He has indeed learned how to carry on.
Guy Lancaster On Genocide: A Normative Account. By Larry May. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2010. 283 Pp., Guy Lancaster
Guy Lancaster On Genocide: A Normative Account. By Larry May. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2010. 283 Pp., Guy Lancaster
Human Rights & Human Welfare
A review of:
Genocide: A Normative Account. By Larry May. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2010. 283 pp.
Kimberly Lanegran On Child Soldiers: Sierra Leone’S Revolutionary United Front. By Myriam Denov. Cambridge, Uk: Cambridge University Press. 2010. 234 Pp., Kimberly Lanegran
Kimberly Lanegran On Child Soldiers: Sierra Leone’S Revolutionary United Front. By Myriam Denov. Cambridge, Uk: Cambridge University Press. 2010. 234 Pp., Kimberly Lanegran
Human Rights & Human Welfare
A review of:
Child Soldiers: Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front. By Myriam Denov. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 2010. 234 pp.
Donald W. Jackson On Prisoners Of America’S Wars: From The Early Republic To Guantanamo. By Stephanie Carvin. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. 336pp., Donald W. Jackson
Donald W. Jackson On Prisoners Of America’S Wars: From The Early Republic To Guantanamo. By Stephanie Carvin. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. 336pp., Donald W. Jackson
Human Rights & Human Welfare
A review of:
Prisoners of America’s Wars: From the Early Republic to Guantanamo. By Stephanie Carvin. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. 336pp.
Security Now: Addressing The Needs Of Darfur’S Children, Nicole Judd
Security Now: Addressing The Needs Of Darfur’S Children, Nicole Judd
Human Rights & Human Welfare
In the Darfur region of Sudan, over 2.3 million children have been affected by the ongoing genocide (UNICEF 2008). Unlike their adult counterparts, children are impacted more severely by the consequences of warfare as they are undergoing a fragile developmental process. While each one of the affected children has had their basic human rights violated in some form, the narrative of trauma differs between groups. Sexually-exploited girls, boy soldiers, unaccompanied children, and those who remain in under-resourced camps have experienced the protracted violence in unique ways. To mitigate the effects of war, each group should receive individualized humanitarian assistance as …
Adoption Of The Responsibility To Protect, William W. Burke-White
Adoption Of The Responsibility To Protect, William W. Burke-White
All Faculty Scholarship
This book chapter traces the legal and political origins of the Responsibility to Protect doctrine from its early origins in the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty through the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document and up to January 2011. The chapter examines the legal meaning of the Responsibility to Protect, the obligations the Responsibility imposes on states and international institutions, and its implications in for the international legal and political systems. The chapter argues that while the Responsibility to Protect has developed with extraordinary speed, it is still a norm in development rather than a binding legal rule. Its …
Genocide Myopia: How Reframing Mass Atrocity Could Backfire, Sonia Cardenas
Genocide Myopia: How Reframing Mass Atrocity Could Backfire, Sonia Cardenas
Human Rights & Human Welfare
The United States has long viewed genocide and mass atrocity as tragic, moral problems divorced from national interests. This may be changing under the Obama administration, with genocide and mass atrocity being reframed as problems to be solved pragmatically. Michael Abramowitz and Lawrence Woocher celebrate this “unprecedented breakthrough” in Foreign Policy, urging President Obama to follow up with specific measures: strategic military planning, interagency coordination, firm leadership, and concrete action on Darfur. Despite the promise of overcoming inaction and focusing on prevention, the new vision of genocide and mass atrocity Abramowitz and Woocher depict remains myopic. It is narrowly focused …
A Break From The Old Routine...., Todd Landman
A Break From The Old Routine...., Todd Landman
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Abramowitz and Woocher highlight a potentially significant shift in policy discourse in international relations with respect to humanitarianism and the prevention of genocide. For many years, the United States has suffered from the twin problems of the human rights “double standard” and “Catch-22.” On the one hand, particular countries have been seen as vital by the United States for intervention on humanitarian grounds even though many believed other geostrategic interests are at stake (e.g. Kosovo in 1999) and others have not (e.g. Rwanda in 1994). On the other hand, US intervention on humanitarian grounds can be criticized as heavy-handed or …
Do Drones Have A Silver Lining?, David Akerson
Do Drones Have A Silver Lining?, David Akerson
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Michael Abramowitz and Lawrence Woocher’s article, “How Genocide Became a National Security Threat,” flags an important milestone in American foreign policy, namely that mass atrocities might now be appropriately viewed as the national security threats that they are. The problem with translating this policy development into action is the next and not insignificant challenge. Aerial drones may be key to overcoming it.
On Genocide And The National Interest, James Pattison
On Genocide And The National Interest, James Pattison
Human Rights & Human Welfare
In the second presidential debate, Barack Obama said, in response to a question about the crisis in Darfur, that “when genocide is happening, when ethnic cleansing is happening somewhere around the world and we stand idly by, that diminishes us. And so I do believe that we have to consider it as part of our interests, our national interests, in intervening where possible.” In a similar vein, Michael Abramowitz and Lawrence Woocher highlight how genocide is increasingly being seen as a security threat by the White House.
Paul Okojie On Darfur And The Crisis Of Governance In Sudan: A Critical Reader. Edited By Salah M. Hassan And Carina E. Ray. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009. 528pp., Paul Okojie
Human Rights & Human Welfare
A review of:
Darfur and the Crisis of Governance in Sudan: A Critical Reader. Edited by Salah M. Hassan and Carina E. Ray. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009. 528pp.
A Human Rights-Oriented Approach To Military Operations, Federico Sperotto
A Human Rights-Oriented Approach To Military Operations, Federico Sperotto
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Counterinsurgency is the dominant aspect of US operations in Afghanistan, and since ISAF—the NATO-led security and assistance force—has assumed growing security responsibility throughout the country, it is also a mission for the Europeans.1 The frame in which military operations are conducted is irregular warfare, a form of conflict which differs from conventional operations in two main aspects. First, it is warfare among and within the people. Second, it is warfare in which insurgents avoid a direct military confrontation, using instead unconventional methods and terrorist tactics.
© Federico Sperotto. All rights reserved.
This paper may be freely circulated in electronic or …
Justice After War: Sri Lanka And The Rights And Duties Of A Vanquisher, William Paul Simmons
Justice After War: Sri Lanka And The Rights And Duties Of A Vanquisher, William Paul Simmons
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Human rights scholars, attorneys, and activists will deservedly focus on the human rights abuses committed by the Sri Lankan military as the decades - long civil war against the Tamil Tigers came to a crushing end this past spring. The military’s brutality, especially its failure to discriminate combatants from non-combatants, should be investigated by both domestic and transnational institutions. It remains to be seen whether such wanton disregard for civilian collateral damage will become the norm for regimes embroiled in civil wars and present yet another realpolitik threat to humanitarian law, or will Sri Lanka and other regimes face accountability …
July Roundtable: Introduction
Human Rights & Human Welfare
An annotation of:
What Next for Sri Lanka's 2.5 Million Tamils? by Amantha Perera. Time. May 26, 2009.
and
How to Defeat Insurgencies: Sri Lanka's Bad Example by Bobby Ghosh. Time, May 20, 2009.
The War Goes On - No Reconciliation At This Stage, Anja Mihr
The War Goes On - No Reconciliation At This Stage, Anja Mihr
Human Rights & Human Welfare
The victorious Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaska has been quite bold to pass a reconciliation note after he declared the thirty year war over. Can he be taken seriously?
Moving Beyond Conflict In Sri Lanka: The Economic Rights Dimension, Shareen Hertel
Moving Beyond Conflict In Sri Lanka: The Economic Rights Dimension, Shareen Hertel
Human Rights & Human Welfare
Much of the literature on transitional justice underplays the role of economic rights in shoring up peace. The case of Sri Lanka demonstrates the urgency of addressing them. Until a month ago, Sri Lanka was the country with Asia’s longest running civil war. Since independence in 1947, the island nation has been wracked by conflict between the Sinhalese majority and the Tamil minority—a conflict that has eroded political stability and aggravated internal inequalities. The struggle was marked not only by inter-ethnic and religious tensions but also by a fight for control over land and resources.
Moving In The Open Daylight, Nicola Colbran
Moving In The Open Daylight, Nicola Colbran
Human Rights & Human Welfare
The road ahead for Sri Lanka is certainly not easy. Although the government has declared that the LTTE ( Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) has been defeated, this “victory” has come at a high cost for civilian lives and democratic values. Decades of instability and violence have given rise to deep rooted and sustained human rights violations. Thousands of Sri Lankans have been displaced, killed or wounded, and are malnourished and traumatized after months of extended fighting between the two sides.
Looking Forward, Backward, Or Just Away?, Chandra Lekha Sriram
Looking Forward, Backward, Or Just Away?, Chandra Lekha Sriram
Human Rights & Human Welfare
The declassification and leaking of the so-called “torture memos” only supplements much which was already publicly well-known, but has offered a fresh opportunity to frankly debate American values, in particular its commitment to the rule of law, its own constitution, and international human rights and humanitarian law obligations to which it has committed itself, and which the Supreme Court has confirmed are part of domestic law. It is a shame, therefore, that the debate has been so stunted, diverted by the red herring of Dick Cheney’s rantings, and the apparent willingness of a segment of the population to accept, first, …
Let Us Not Become The Evil We Deplore, Rebecca Otis
Let Us Not Become The Evil We Deplore, Rebecca Otis
Human Rights & Human Welfare
On 14 September 2001, Representative Barbara Lee (CA-D) voted against the House bill that granted President Bush the authority to use force in response to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. As the sole person to vote against the bill (by a margin of 420-1), Lee was roundly vilified as a “traitor,” a “coward, and even a “communist.” Later that day, as the only voice of dissent on the House floor, Lee delivered a speech to justify her position. Famously, she said to the elected representatives of our country, “As we act, let us not become …
June Roundtable: Introduction
Human Rights & Human Welfare
An annotation of:
“The Red Cross Torture Report: What It Means.” by Mark Danner. The New York Review of Books. April 30, 2009.