Hard Choices

Moral Dilemmas in Humanitarian Intervention

Jonathan Moore

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
• Year: 1998
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781461637219
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: International Relations
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Since Somalia, the international community has found itself changing its view of humanitarian intervention. Operations designed to alleviate suffering and achieve peace sometimes produce damaging results. The United Nations, nongovernmental organizations, military and civilian agencies alike find themselves in the midst of confusion and weakness where what they seek are clarity and stability. Competing needs, rights, and values can obscure even the best international efforts to quell violence and assuage crises of poverty. More attention must be paid to the complexity of issues and moral dilemmas involved.

This volume of original essays by international policy leaders, practitioners, and scholars brings together insights into the conflicting moral pressures present in different kinds of interventions ranging from Rwanda and Somalia to Haiti, Cambodia, and Bosnia. From their various cultural and professional perspectives the authors cover issues of human rights, sanctions, arms trade, refugees, HIV, and the media. Together they make the case that, although there are no easy answers, moral reflection and content can improve the quality of decisionmaking and intervention in internal conflicts.

Published under the auspices of The International Committee of the Red Cross.

Table of contents

• Foreword
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 - From War and Peace to Violence and Intervention Permanent Moral Dilemmas under Changing Political and Technological Conditions
• 2 - Military Intervention and National Sovereignty Recasting the Relationship
• 3 - Peacekeeping, Military Intervention, and National Sovereignty in Internal Armed Conflict
• 4 - The End of Innocence Rwanda 1994
• 5 - Mixed Intervention in Somalia and the Great Lakes Culture, Neutrality, and the Military
• 6 - Military-Humanitarian Ambiguities in Haiti
• 7 - Weaving a New Society in Cambodia The Story of Monath
• 8 - “You Save My Life Today, But for What Tomorrow?” Some Moral Dilemmas of Humanitarian Aid
• 9 - Hard Choices after Genocide Human Rights and Political Failures in Rwanda
• 10 - Refugee Camps, Population Transfers, and NGOs
• 11 - Bringing War Criminals to Justice during an Ongoing War
• 12 - Moral Reconstruction in the Wake of Human Rights Violations and War Crimes
• 13 - The Morality of Sanctions
• 14 - Moving in Vicious Circles The Moral Dilemmas of Arms Transfers and Weapons Manufacture
• 15 - A Future, If One Is Still Alive The challenge of the HIV Epidemic
• 16 - The Stories We Tell Television and Humanitarian Aid
• Index
• About the Authors