Politics of intervention …

Christian Century, Nov 15, 2003 by Theodore R. Weber

VICTORIA BARNETT'S review of Brian D. Lepard's Bethinking Humanitarian Intervention ("Rescue mission," Sept. 6) overlooks an essential aspect of the concept itself (which I hope is treated in the book): humanitarian intervention is never simply humanitarian. It is always also political intervention, regardless of whether the means are military, economic or diplomatic. Intervention to protect lives and human rights inevitably influences the course of conflict-and hinders or shapes particular political outcomes. Slobodan Milosevic objected to humanitarian relief and protection in Bosnia and Kosovo because he knew such intervention would limit and perhaps defeat his program of ethnic cleansing. The expulsion of President Charles Taylor was the basic price for humanitarian intervention in Liberia.

To disclose the political character of humanitarian intervention is not to undercut its justification. Rather it is to say that estimates of political effect and projections of the desired political future must be part of the process of justification. Lepard's proposal for a synthesis of rights drawn from the major religions of the world may be useful to that process, but it does not eliminate or override the moral necessity of political calculation and planning. Moreover, the political dimension implies that interests of the intervenors are present and should be recognized. What makes the intervention humanitarian is not the absence of interest but the priority of humanitarian considerations.

Theodore R. Weber Atlanta, Ca.