The phenomenon of humanitarian military intervention,
exemplified by the NATO military action against Yugoslavia over Kosovo,
apparently taken not for strategic or economic but for humanitarian interests,
raises important questions of policy and principle. The conference will bring
together people of diverse theoretical and practical perspectives to reflect on
a high level about the implications and problems of this novel combination of
means and ends, waging war to protect people in another sovereign state against
oppression, expulsion, or massacre.
Among the issues the conference will consider are:
- What considerations of principle or prudence does political philosophy
suggest to justify, forbid, or limit such intervention?
- Must this phenomenon be understood in the shadow of the Holocaust and a
determination in Europe to show that it is no longer the kind of place where
such events can take place? Will such intervention take place only in Europe,
or must the Holocaust change our general standards for the justification of
war?
- What becomes of sovereignty if such intervention becomes the norm? Must
humanitarian military intervention necessarily be employed only against weak
states?
- What can be learned from imperial precedents, in which military actions
enforced the humanitarian standards of an empire? Are such interventions
necessarily quasi-imperial?
- What are the implications of the ends of such conflicts for its means? Are
they compatible with destruction of the civilian economy of the offending
state or inflicting casualties among its civilian population to minimize one's
own?
- Does such intervention require a new doctrine and system of long-term
foreign military occupation and civil administration of the territory
involved?
- What are the implications of humanitarian military intervention for the
ability of the intervening powers to respond to traditional strategic threats?
A detailed schedule for this conference is forthcoming.
Any questions may be directed to:
Stephen Gregory at 773-702-3423 or mailto://stephen-gregory@uchicago.edu
Conference Schedule
Friday, May 12
2:30 pm
Making
War to Keep Peace: When is it Legitimate?
Prudent? Necessary?
When is it not Legitimate?
Ambassador
Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Department of Government, Georgetown University
Saintly Strategy, or the Humanitarian
Expulsion of Politics from War
Leon Wieseltier, Literary Editor, The New
Republic
Kosovo, East Timor, Chechnya: How
Inconsistent Can One Get?
Pierre Hassner, Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Internationales
Saturday, May 13
10:00 am
Wars for the End of History?
Clifford Orwin, Department of Political Science, University of Toronto
Just War and Humanitarian Intervention
Jean Elshtain, Divinity School, University of Chicago
2:30
pm
Should
the Military 'Do Windows?'
Humanitarian Intervention and Civil-Military Relations
Michael C. Desch, The
Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce, University of Kentucky
A
Rooseveltian Foreign Policy – TR not FDR
Adam
Wolfson, Executive Editor, Public Interest
Humanitarian
Coercive Diplomacy or Humanitarian War?
Charles
Fairbanks, Johns Hopkins Foreign Policy Institute
Sunday,
May 14
10:00
am
Kosovo:
The West’s Last War of Conscience?
Josef Joffe, Institute for International Studies,
Stanford University
The Security Debate after 1989 – A
Central European Point of View
Deputy Minister Martin Palouš, Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of the Czech Republic
All sessions will
be held in the Theater of Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 E. 59th St.
Persons
with a disability who believe they may need assistance may contact Stephen
Gregory in advance at (773) 702-3423.
.
©1999, 2000 The John M. Olin Center for Inquiry into the Theory and Practice
of Democracy, University of Chicago
Revised: January 2nd,
2000
http://olincenter.uchicago.edu/dilemmas_2000.html