Spring 2000: U.S. Foreign Interventions: Human Rights and National Interest
Ten years ago, most students of American foreign policy would
have agreed that forcible intervention abroad by the United States
for humanitarian purposes was both unlikely and illegal in most
circumstances. Article 2 (7) of the U.N. Charter upholds the right
of sovereign states to be free from foreign intervention. However,
interventions during the last decade, e.g. in Somalia, Haiti,
and Kosovo, challenge the inviolability of state sovereignty.
We are now witnessing a move towards a new international order
where foreign restitution of human rights overrides state sovereignty.
But the circumstances justifying such interventions remain uncertain
and ambiguous? How does the U.S. (and the U.N.) decide in which
cases to intervene? And is foreign intervention really effective
in changing the trajectory of a country? In a series of events
throughout the semester, nationally renowned policy makers and
scholars will explore these important questions, laying out contending
positions and proposing bases for future policy actions.
February 10, 2000
Foreign Humanitarian Intervention: Which Children to Save?
Anthony Lake, Georgetown University, former National Security Advisor, 1992-96
February 23, 2000
Human Rights and Foreign Intervention: In Search of a New Paradigm
Panel Discussion
According to many observers, U.S. interventions in Somalia, Haiti, and Kosovo are evidence of a significant shift in international law and practice toward acceptance of the right of forcible intervention when massive violations of human rights are occuring within a stateÕs borders. This proposition, however, demands careful specification of the conditions that can legitimately override a nation's sovereign rights. Moreover does this kind of really create better, more just, societies? How does one weigh the claims of sovereign independence against the common obligation to promote and preserve human rights? What factors should determine how and when the U.S. or the U.N. intervenes? These questions will be the focus of a panel discussion with national experts and policy makers.
Moderator Sohail Hashmi, Assistant Professor
of International Relations Program, Mount Holyoke College Mr.
HashmiÕs research focuses on international ethics. He is the editor
of State Sovereignty: Change and Persistence in International
Relations and is currently finishing a book on The Islamic Ethics
of Peace and War.
Martha Finnemore, Associate Professor of Political
Science and International Affairs, George Washington University,
Washington D.C. Ms.Finnemore was a guest scholar at the Brookings
Institution in 1994-96 and has since completed a book on changing
patterns of military intervention which includes an examination
of humanitarian intervention.
Michael Joseph Smith, Professor of Government
and Foreign Affairs, Director of the Program in Social and Political
Thought, University of Virginia Author of a book on modern realism,
Michael Smith focuses his research on the ethical dilemmas of
contemporary international politics, and has written extensively
on issues of human rights, humanitarian interventions, and the
moral responsibilities of states and citizens.
Hurst Hannum, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy,
Tufts University Hurst Hannum has written widely on human rights
and self-determination issues and has represented clients in a
number of international human rights forums. He is an advisor
to plaintiffs in a case before the European Court of Human Rights
that challenges the legality of the NATO bombing of a TV station
in Belgrade during the Kosovo 'crisis' and was an advisor to the
UN during the East Timor autonomy negotiations between Indonesia
and Portugal, prior to the August 1999 referendum in favor of
independence.
April 6, 2000
U.S. Intervention Abroad: Wanted and Unwanted Consequences
Panel Discussion
U.S. intervention in Somalia in 1992 has been widely considered a failure. On the other hand, many observers judge the intervention in Kosovo to be a success, although the final verdict is still out. What have been the consequences of past interventions for the peoples who have experienced the forcible insertion of outside forces into their daily lives? For international relations and policy making? Under what conditions can human rights interventions be successful? These are some of the questions addressed in this symposium by a group of national experts who have been close participants or observers in recent U.S. interventions abroad.
Moderator Phyllis Oakley, Cyrus Vance Professor at Mount
Holyoke College during Spring 2000. Phyllis E. Oakley served twice
as Assistant Secretary in the Department of State as a career
foreign service officer. She most recently headed the Bureau of
Intelligence and Research after leading the Bureau of Population,
Refugees, and Migration for three years. She was the first female
spokesperson for the State Department.
Michael Barnett, Professor of Political Science, Director
of the International Relations Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Prof. Barnett has published widely in the area of international
relations, the United Nations, and Middle Eastern politics. From
1993-94 he was a Council on Foreign Relations International Affaris
Fellow at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, where he worked
on several peacekeeping operations, incl. Somalia and Rwanda.
Ivo Daalder, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution
Ivo H. Daalder served on the staff of the National Security Council
during President Clinton's first term, where he was responsible
for coordinating US policy toward Bosnia. He is the author, most
recently, of Getting to Dayton: The Making of AmericaÕs
Bosnia Policy and (with Michael O'Hanlon) Kosovo: Anatomy of a
Crisis.
Robert Oakley, Institute for National Strategic Studies,
National Defense University. Robert Oakley served as ambassador
to Zaire, Somalia, and Pakistan. He was called back after retirement
by President Bush to be the Special Envoy to Somalia for Operation
Restore Hope.
Susan Woodward, Center for Defense Studies, University
of London Ms. Woodward spent much of 1994 as head of the Analysis
and Assessment Unit in the Office of the Special Representative
of the Secretary-General to former Yugoslavia in the headquarters
of the U.N. Protection Force in Zagreb, Croatia. She is the author
of Balkan Tragedy: Chaos and Dissolution after the Cold War.
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