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The duty to oppose violence: humanitarian intervention as a question for political philosophy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2010

BJORN GOMES
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Abstract

Although the non-intervention rule is often defended as a guarantee of international order, rigid adherence to it cannot be morally justified when governments commit or permit atrocities within their territory. In such cases, intervention is permissible and may even be obligatory. Drawing on the ideas of Rousseau, Kant, and to a lesser extent Hegel, this article examines the grounds of the argument for humanitarian intervention, demonstrating that intervention is in principle not only permissible but obligatory when considered philosophically. The right to intervene can be grounded on common morality, the protection of sovereignty and the coerciveness of justice. The duty to intervene rests on a respect for humanity and the conceptual relationship between rights and duties. Considering these two lines of argument shows that humanitarian intervention can be conceived as a duty that states can be reasonably required to perform.

Type
Research Article
Information
Review of International Studies , Volume 37 , Issue 3 , July 2011 , pp. 1045 - 1067
Copyright
Copyright © British International Studies Association 2010

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71 As with Rousseau, I am not recruiting Kant to the cause of humanitarian intervention.

72 I will treat the words ‘justice’ and ‘right’ as equivalent in Kant. Doing so makes sense since both words have been used to translate Recht.

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82 For the purposes of this article, all three terms will be taken to be interchangeable.

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