Hard Choices

Moral Dilemmas in Humanitarian Intervention

Contributions by Mary B. Anderson, Kofi A. Annan, Rony Brauman, Romeo A. Dallaire, Richard J. Goldstone, Colin T. Granderson, Pierre Hassner, J Bryan Hehir, Michael Ignatieff Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University, Ian Martin, Larry Minear, Elizabeth Reid, Mohamed Sahnoun, Mu Sochua, Cornelio Sommaruga, Roger Williamson, José Zalaquett Edited by Jonathan Moore

Publication date:

03 December 1998

Length of book:

336 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Dimensions:

235x156mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780847690305

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.

Chapter 1 Foreword
Chapter 2 Introduction
Chapter 3 From War and Peace to Violence and Intervention: Permanent Moral Dilemmas under Changing Political and Technological Conditions
Chapter 4 Military Intervention and National Sovereignty: Recasting the Relationship
Chapter 5 Peacekeeping, Military Intervention, and National Sovereignty in Internal Armed Conflict
Chapter 6 The End of Innocence: Rwanda 1994
Chapter 7 Mixed Intervention in Somalia and the Great Lakes: Culture, Neutrality, and the Military
Chapter 8 Military-Humanitarian Ambiguities in Haiti
Chapter 9 Weaving a New Society in Cambodia: The Story of Monath
Chapter 10 "You Save My Life Today, But for What Tomorrow?" Some Moral Dilemmas of Humanitarian Aid
Chapter 11 Hard Choices after Genocide: Human Rights and Political Failures in Rwanda
Chapter 12 Refugee Camps, Population Transfers, and NGOs
Chapter 13 Bringing War Criminals to Justice during an Ongoing War
Chapter 14 Moral Reconstruction in the Wake of Human Rights Violations and War Crimes
Chapter 15 The Morality of Sanctions
Chapter 16 Moving in Vicious Circles: The Moral Dilemmas of Arms Transfers and Weapons Manufacture
Chapter 17 A Future, If One Is Still Alive: The Challenge of the HIV Epidemic
Chapter 18 The Stories We Tell: Television and Humanitarian Aid
Chapter 19 Index

Sharply worded statements of uncomfortable truths.