CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2011
| Author | Pop, Oana-Florina |
|---|---|
| Title | Between Non-intervention and the Protection of Human Rights: a Moral Defense of Humanitarian Intervention |
| Summary | Although humanitarian intervention has been a recurrent issue in moral and political philosophy for a while now, much disagreement over its moral justifiability persists among scholars. The common denominator of previous views is their working on the assumption that solving the moral problem of humanitarian intervention comes down to making a choice between sovereignty and non-intervention on the one hand, and human rights on the other. The present thesis follows a different strategy: it proceeds from an understanding of the moral puzzle humanitarian intervention presents us with by exploring the philosophical underpinnings of sovereignty and human rights. Two distinct but continuous arguments are put forward. First, the sovereignty-centered argument establishes that humanitarian intervention is morally justified when human rights violations are purposive, systematic, extensive, and preventing or ending them represents an emergency, because it aims to restore a genuine form of sovereignty, consistent with its moral rationale. Also, because of the multiple risks it presents, the justifiability of humanitarian intervention is constrained by a series of requirements it needs to meet. Second, the cosmopolitan argument establishes that, because the global institutional scheme is unjust and individuals participate in it, they have a duty of humanitarian intervention, which, given its content, can only be discharged by collective agents. This view has far reaching implications that cross the boundaries of moral and political philosophy: it shows governments, political leaders, and lawyers that humanitarian intervention, provided it is conducted in accordance with a series of principles, does not threaten to undermine the global order, but aims to make it more just. |
| Supervisor | Miklosi, Zoltan |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2011/pop_oana-florina.pdf |
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