It Takes a Region: A Proposal for an Alternative Regional Approach to UN Collective Force Humanitarian Interventions,
Abstract
The demise of the Soviet Union, the recent kaleidoscope of human apocalypses in Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Rwanda, and the corresponding upsurge in United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions all have once again lead to a myriad of governmental and academic proposals seeking to improve the UN's collective enforcement capabilities. Against the backdrop of intrastate humanitarian pressures, these proposals center on either revitalizing the stillborn UN collective enforcement security apparatus, urging the creation of a UN rapid deployment force, or a establishing a standing blue helmeted army. If history is any guide, these new proposals are destined to suffer the same fate as all previous UN blue-helmeted collective enforcement proposals, outright rejection or death through neglect. This paper attempts to discern the doctrinal reasons for their cold reception and to suggest an alternative approach to collective enforcement of humanitarian norms. The approach suggested in this paper uses liberal international law assumptions to construct a regional approach (one not necessarily defined in terms of geographical contiguity), and to argue that such an approach is one way in which effective collective enforcement can became reality instead of remaining mired in the realm of aspiration.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1997
- Accession Number
- ADA327940
Entities
People
- David D. Jividen
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology