A System for Humanitarian Intervention?

Abstract

This monograph investigates the reasons for the lack of coordination and combined effort between political leadership, military engagement and humanitarian activity during a humanitarian intervention. It analyses basic principles to successfully combine these aspects in a system for these type of operations. The peace operation in Somalia between 1992 and 1995 is used an example and analytical framework. The monograph first describes the changed nature of conflicts with the end of the Cold War and defines intra state conflicts, which result in failed states, as happened in Somalia, as the most likely type of conflict for the foreseeable future. After a brief description of the nature of humanitarian intervention as a new type of peace operation in a post-Cold War environment and the anatomy of a failed state the focus is on analyzing the political-, military-, and humanitarian key actor's criteria for action and success in humanitarian interventions. The monograph discusses the reasons for failure in humanitarian interventions like Somalia as a combination of the key actor's still Cold War dominated event-or situation oriented view instead of a process-oriented view necessary to create a "New World Order" and not adjusted criteria for action and success in a new crises environment. The basis for the lack of political, military and humanitarian cooperation is the missing combined systematic approach for conflict resolution. The study concludes in defining three basic principles- the acceptance of humanitarian intervention as a process, the necessary shift from a force-oriented to a time-oriented approach, and the application of a dynamic combined strategy- for a system to successfully combine the political, military and humanitarian dimensions of a humanitarian intervention.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 22, 1997
Accession Number
ADA625743

Entities

People

  • Volker Halbauer

Organizations

  • United States Army Command and General Staff College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Agreements
  • Civil War
  • Cold War
  • Economic Systems
  • Failed States
  • Governments
  • Intergovernmental Organizations
  • International Organizations
  • International Relations
  • Military Operations
  • National Politics
  • National Security
  • Nongovernmental Organizations
  • Political Systems
  • Sociopolitics
  • United States
  • War Colleges

Readers

  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.
  • Theoretical Analysis.