Responsibility to Protect or Trojan Horse? The Crisis in Darfur and Humanitarian Intervention after Iraq

Ethics and International Affairs

Volumn 19, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 31-54

  Bellamy, Alex J ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 34247476181     PISSN: 08926794     EISSN: 17477093     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1747-7093.2005.tb00499.x     Document Type: Article

References (132)

1. “UN Chief's Rwanda Genocide Regret,” BBC News World Edition, March 26, 2004; available at news. bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3573229.stm.
2. Tony Blair, speech given to the Labour Party Conference, Brighton, U.K., October 2, 2001. I am grateful to Nick Wheeler for bringing this to my attention.
3. “The National Security Strategy of the United States of America” (September 2002), sec. V; available at www. whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss.pdf.
4. According to Alex de Waal, the government of Sudan has “consistently franchised its counter-insurgency operations to militia,” in this case the Janjaweed. The government provides the militia with arms, intelligence, and air support and allows them to operate with complete impunity, creating an “ethics-free zone.” Alex de Waal, “Briefing: Darfur, Sudan: Prospects for Peace,” African Affairs 104, no. 414 (2005), p. 129.
5. These figures were offered in a detailed study by Jan Coebergh, “Sudan: Genocide Has Killed More Than the Tsunami,” Parliamentary Brief 9, no. 7 (2005), pp. 5–6. The lower figure is extrapolated from an MSF survey and the upper one from a U.S. State Department report.
6. Parliamentary Brief. These figures are extrapolated from data provided by USAID and the World Health Organization.
7. House of Commons International Development Committee, Darfur, Sudan: The Responsibility to Protect, fifth report of session 2004–05, vol. 1 (HC 67–1), March 30, 2005, p. 3; available at www.publications.parlia ment.uk/pa/cm200405/cmselect/cmintdev/67/67i.pdf.
8. UN News Centre, “UN Refugee Agency Withdraws Staff from South Darfur Over Sudanese Restrictions,” New York, November 11,2004; available at www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=12510.
9. See Thalif Deen, “New UN Force for Sudan Will Skirt Darfur Crisis,” Inter Press Service, February 9, 2005; available at globalpolicy.igc.org/security/issues/sudan/2005/0208unskirts.htm. It is widely recognized that after an initial respite, the humanitarian situation has actually deteriorated despite AMIS.
10. UNSC Res. 1590 (March 24, 2005).
11. UNSC Res. 1593 (March 31, 2005). Passed with eleven in favor and four abstentions (Algeria, Brazil, China, and the United States).
12. This is wheeler's term. Nicholas J. Wheeler, Saving Strangers: Humanitarian Intervention in International Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 34.
13. See also Nicholas J. Wheeler and Justin Morris, “Justifying Iraq as a Humanitarian Intervention: The Cure Is Worse Than the Disease,” in W. P. S. Sidhu and Ramesh Thakur, eds., The Iraq Crisis and World Order: Structural and Normative Challenges (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, forthcoming). I owe the “norm carriers” idea to them.
14. A process they describe as “norm cascade.” See Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink, “International Norm Dynamics and Political Change,” International Organization 52, no. 4 (1998), pp. 887–918.
15. Ward Thomas, for instance, argues that a new norm's vitality depends on its advocates being seen to practice it in good faith. Ward Thomas, The Ethics of Destruction: Norms and Force in International Relations (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001), pp. 34–35.
16. The idea of “acquiescence” to the West's humanitarian agenda is taken from Wheeler and Morris, “Justifying Iraq as a Humanitarian Intervention,” p. 15.
17. My argument draws on Quentin Skinner, “Analysis of Political Thought and Action,” in James Tully, ed., Meaning and Context: Quentin Skinner and His Critics (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1988), pp. 116–17. I am grateful to Nick Wheeler for suggesting this.
18. Nicholas J. Wheeler, “The Humanitarian Responsibilities of Sovereignty: Explaining the Development of a New Norm of Military Intervention for Humanitarian Purposes in International Society,” in Jennifer M. Welsh, ed., Humanitarian Intervention and International Relations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 32–41.
19. The debates among liberal states about whether to intervene in Kosovo provide the best demonstration of this moral consensus. See Alex J. Bellamy, Kosovo and International Society (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002).
20. The best theoretical expression of this liberal consensus can be found in Michael Walzer, “The Politics of Rescue,” in Arguing about War (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004), pp. 67–81
21. It is important to note, however, that five states abstained when France requested a Security Council mandate to launch Operation Turquoise in Rwanda, most citing concerns about France's motives. See Wheeler, Saving Strangers, p. 232.
22. See Michael Barnett, Eyewitness to a Genocide: The United Nations and Rwanda (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002)
23. Wheeler, Saving Strangers, pp. 231–41.
24. Simon Chesterman, Just War or Just Peace? Humanitarian Intervention and International Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 231.
25. Independent International Commission on Kosovo, Kosovo Report: Conflict, International Response, Lessons Learned (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 4
26. and Ian Clark, Legitimacy in International Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 212.
27. It is remarkable that even traditionally conservative states such as Malaysia chose to side with NATO rather than to abstain. UNSC 3989th meeting, S/PV.3989, March 26, 1999; available at www.un.org/Depts/dhl/resguide/scact1999.htm.
28. Nicholas J. Wheeler, “The Legality of NATO's Intervention in Kosovo,” in Ken Booth, ed., The Kosovo Tragedy: The Human Rights Dimensions (London: Frank Cass, 2001), p. 156.
29. See Final Document of the XIII Ministerial Conference of the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries (Cartagena, Colombia, April 8–9, 2000), pp. 41–42; available at www.nam.gov.za/xiiiminconf/index.html. It should be noted that the Non-Aligned Movement itself did not achieve a consensus on this position.
30. Constitutive Act ofthe African Union; available at www.africa-union.org/About_AU/AbConstitutive_Act.htm.
31. Kofi Annan, speech given to the Nobel Foundation, Oslo, Norway, December 10, 2001; available at www.nobel.se/peace/laureates/2001/annanlecture.html.
32. Most of the unauthorized interventions were conducted with host nation consent, sometimes coerced. For a definitive list of these operations (up to February 2005), see tables 1 and 2 in Alex J. Bellamy and Paul D. Williams, “Who's Keeping the Peace? Regionalization and Contemporary Peace Operations,” International Security 29, no. 4 (2005), pp. 35–36.
33. Gareth Evans and Mohamed Sahnoun, “Foreword,” in International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, The Responsibility to Protect (Ottawa: IDRC, 2001), p. viii.
34. ICISS, The Responsibility to Protect, p. 17.
35. “Supreme humanitarian emergencies” and “spikes” refer to the idea that mass killing is either ongoing or imminent at the time of the intervention See Wheeler, Saving Strangers, p. 34
36. and Tom Farer, “Cosmopolitan Humanitarian Intervention: A Five-Part Test,” International Relations 19, no. 2 (2005), pp. 216–17.
37. ICISS, The Responsibility to Protect, paras. 4.19, 6.11, 6.29–40, and pp. xii-xiii.
38. The Responsibility to Protect, paras., p. xii.
39. See Nicholas J. Wheeler, “Legitimating Humanitarian Intervention: Principles and Procedures,” Melbourne Journal of International Law 2, no. 2 (2001), pp. 552–54.
40. Jennifer M. Welsh, “Conclusion: Humanitarian Intervention after 11 September,” in Welsh, ed., Humanitarian Intervention, p. 180.
41. Ian Williams, “Writing the Wrongs of Past Interventions: A Review of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty,” International Journal of Human Rights 6, no. 3 (2002), p. 103.
42. Welsh, “Conclusion,” p. 204, n. 4.
43. See Colin McInnes, “A Different Kind of War? September 11 and the United States' Afghan War,” Review of International Studies 29, no. 2 (2003), pp. 165–84
44. Nicholas J. Wheeler, “Humanitarian Intervention after September 11, 2001,” in Anthony F. Lang, Jr., ed., Just Intervention (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2003), pp. 192–216
45. Simon Chesterman, “Humanitarian Intervention and Afghanistan,” in Welsh, ed., Humanitarian Intervention, pp. 163–75.
46. See Adam Roberts, “Law and the Use of Force after Iraq,” Survival 45, no. 2 (2003), p. 48.
47. Michael Ignatieff, an ICISS commissioner, was an early supporter; see Ignatieff, “Why Are We in Iraq? (And Liberia? And Afghanistan?),” New York Times Magazine, September 7, 2003, pp. 38ff.
48. Kenneth Roth wrote one of the most detailed rejections in Ken Roth, “War in Iraq: Not a Humanitarian Intervention,” Human Rights Watch World Report 2004; available at hrw.org/wr2k4/3.htm;
49. see also David Vesel,“The Lonely Pragmatist: Humanitarian Intervention in an Imperfect World,” BYU Journal of Public Law 18, no. 1 (2004), p. 56. It is also worth noting that the humanitarian argument was not raised in the Security Council's formal proceedings.
50. This terminology is drawn from Nicholas J. Wheeler and Alex J. Bellamy, “Humanitarian Intervention in World Politics,” in John Baylis and Steve Smith, eds., The Globalization of World Politics, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 572.
51. See Chesterman, “Humanitarian Intervention in Afghanistan,” in Welsh, ed., Humanitarian Intervention.
52. Wheeler, “Humanitarian Intervention after September 11, 2001,” in Lang, Jr., ed., Just Intervention
53. Tom Farer, “Humanitarian Intervention before and after 9/11: Legality and Legitimacy,” in J. L. Holzgrefe and Robert O. Keohane, eds., Humanitarian Intervention: Ethical, Legal, and Political Dilemmas (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), p. 80.
54. See Richard Bruneau, “Selfishness in Service of the Common Good: Why States Participate in UN Peacekeeping” (unpublished ms.), p. 3.
55. Thomas G. Weiss, “The Sunset of Humanitarian Intervention? The Responsibility to Protect in a Unipolar Era,” Security Dialogue 35, no. 2 (2004), p. 135
56. James Traub, “Never Again, No Longer?” New York Times, July 18, 2004, p. 12.
57. See Wheeler, Saving Strangers, p. 295.
58. A point developed in Paul D. Williams and Alex J. Bellamy, “The Responsibility to Protect and the Crisis in Darfur,” Security Dialogue 36, no. 1 (2005), p. 41.
59. Gareth Evans, “When Is It Right to Fight?” Survival 46, no. 3 (2004), pp. 59–82.
60. Respectively, Ian Williams, “Intervene with Caution,” In These Times, July 28, 2003, p. 7
61. Richard Falk, “Humanitarian Intervention: A Forum,” Nation, July 14,2003, available at www.thenation.com/doc. mhtml8i =200307i485=forum
62. Karl Kaiser, “A European Perspective on the Post Iraq New International Order,” paper presented at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Jakarta, Indonesia, July 29, 2003; available at www.csis.or.id/events_past_view.asp?id=5&tab=o; John Kampfner interviewed by Tim Dunne, available at www.ex.ac.uk/shipss/news/kampfner.htm
63. The Fund for Peace, Neighbors on Alert: Regional Views on Humanitarian Intervention, Summary Report of the Regional Responses to Internal War Program, October 2003, p. 6.
64. David Clark, “Iraq Has Wrecked Our Case for Humanitarian Wars,” Guardian, August 12, 2003, p. 16; available at www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,1016573,00.html.
65. See Agence France-Presse, “British PM Urges Tougher Stance against Brutal Regimes,” July 14, 2003
66. and Kevin Ward, “Process Needed so Countries Know When to Intervene to Protect Human Rights,” CBS News (Canada), July 13, 2003; available at www.globalpolicy.org/empire/humanint/2003/0713canada.htm.
67. Cheryl O. Igiri and Princeton N. Lyman, “Giving Meaning to “‘Never Again’: Seeking an Effective Response to the Crisis in Darfur and Beyond,” CSR no. 5 (Council on Foreign Relations, New York, N.Y., September 2004), p. 21.
68. Scott Straus, “Darfur and the Genocide Debate,” Foreign Affairs 84, no. 1 (2005), p. 128.
69. John Laughland, “The Mask of Altruism Disguising a Colonial War,” Guardian, August 2, 2004; available at www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1273982,00.html.
70. Kenneth Roth, “The War in Iraq: Justified as Humanitarian Intervention?” Kroc Institute Occasional Paper No. 25 (The Joan B. Kroc Institute, Notre Dame, Ind., 2004), pp. 2–3.
71. Ramesh Thakur, “Iraq and the Responsibility to Protect,” Behind the Headlines 62, no. 1 (2004), pp. 1–16
72. and Ramesh Thakur, “Developing Countries and the Intervention-Sovereignty Debate,” in Richard M. Price and Mark W. Zacher, eds., The United Nations and Global Security (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), pp. 194–208.
73. Cited in “Mass Rape Atrocity in West Sudan,” BBC News World Edition, March 19, 2004; available at news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3549325.stm.
74. See Human Rights Watch, “Darfur Destroyed: Ethnic Cleansing by Government and Militia Forces in Western Sudan” (New York: Human Rights Watch, May 2004), pp. 56–57; available at hrw.org/reports/2004/ sudan0504
75. and Afrol News, “UN Peacekeeping Mission for Sudan Prepared,” May 28, 2004; available at www.afrol.com/articles/12789.
76. See, e.g., John Prendergast, “Sudan's Ravines of Death,” New York Times, July 15, 2004, p. A23
77. and Embassy of the Republic of Sudan, “The New York Times Faulted Sudan,” April 13, 2004; available at sudanembassy.org/default.asp?page=viewstory&id=262.
78. Human Rights Watch, “Darfur Destroyed,” p. 55.
79. UNSC 4988th meeting, S/PV.4988, June 11,2004, p. 4.
80. UNSC Res. 1547 (2004), June 11, 2004; emphasis in original.
81. UNSC 4988th meeting, S/PV.4988, June 11,2004, p. 4.
82. UNSC 5015th meeting, S/PV.5015, July 30, 2004, pp. 10–11.
83. UNSC 5015th meeting., p. 10.
84. UNSC 5015th meeting., p. 13.
85. UNSC 5015th meeting., p. 4; emphasis added.
86. Simon Tisdall described it as a “dark study in disillusion.” Simon Tisdall, “Brave Talk but No Action: Darfur Gets a Familiar Response from the West,” Guardian, August 3, 2004; available at www.guardian.co.uk/inter national/story/0,3604,1274670,00.html. I am grateful to Paul Williams for bringing this to my attention.
87. “Australia May Join Darfur Mission,” Daily Telegraph, July 28,2004,p. 8.I am grateful to Sara Davies for bringing this to my attention.
88. CBC News, “African Union Sending Military Force to Darfur,” July 6, 2004; available at www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/07/05/world/janjaweed040705
89. Reuters, “African Union to Send Troops to Darfur,” July 5, 2004.
90. Human Rights News, “Darfur: Rwandan Troops to Protect Civilians,” Human Rights Watch, New York, August 17, 2004; available at hrw.org/english/docs/ 2004/08/17/darfur9241.htm.
91. Quoted in Eric Reeves, “The Deployment of New African Union Forces to Darfur: What It Does and Doesn't Mean,” October 25, 2004; available at www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=6168.
92. Human Rights News, “Darfur: African Union Must Insist on More Troops,” Human Rights Watch, New York, August 20, 2004; available at hrw.org/english/ docs/2004/08/20/darfur9251.htm.
93. Duncan Woodside, “Mandate Unclear as AU Troops Head for Darfur,” Business Day (South Africa), October 29, 2004, p. 12.
94. African Union Peace and Security Council Communiqué PSC/PR/Comm. (XVII), Peace and Security Council, 17th meeting, October 20, 2004, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, para. 6, p. 2; available at www.africa union.org/News_Events/Communiqu%C3%A9s/Com muniqu%C3%A9%20_Eng%2020%20oct%202004.pdf.
95. UN News Centre, “World is Responsible for Ending “‘Terrible Violence’ in Sudan, Annan Says,” New York, September 24, 2004; available at www.un.org/apps /news/storyAr.asp?NewsID=12044.
96. “Thousands More Troops for Darfur,” BBC News U.K. Edition, October 1, 2004; available at news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3706340.stm.
97. Reuters, “Troops Attack in Darfur as a Deadline Passes,” December 20, 2004.
98. Quoted in Thalif Deen, “UN Admits Sudan Policies Failing,” Inter Press Service, December 22, 2004; available at www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews =26779.
99. Also see Leslie Lefkow, “No Justice for Sudan,” Guardian, January 10, 2005; available at www. guardian.co.uk/sudan/story/0,1387074,00.html.
100. Quoted in Deen, “New UN Force for Sudan Will Skirt Darfur Crisis.”
101. Waranya Moni, “The UN Report on Darfur: What Role for the AU?” Pambazuka News, February 10, 2005; available at www.pambazuka.org/index.php?id=26831.
102. Eric Reeves, “Genocide by Attrition,” In These Times, February 16, 2005; available at www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/1960.
103. Amil Khan and Mohamed Abdellah, “Arab League Rejects Sudan Embargo,” Reuters, August 9,2004.
104. Russia had recently sold MiG aircraft to Sudan and feared that the government would use any potential sanctions as a justification for defaulting on its payments. China has important oil interests in Sudan. See Scott Peterson, “Sudan's Key Ties at the UN,” Christian Science Monitor, August 31,2004, p. 5.
105. Quoted in “Security Council Disagrees over Sudan Sanctions,” Sunday Standard (Nairobi), August 22, 2004, p. 2.
106. S/PV.5027, September 2, 2004, p. 2. U.S. ambassador John Danforth argued that Annan's report was wrong to suggest that there was no evidence of attacks by government forces and that the AU Ceasefire Commission had in fact reported two such incidents.
107. Cited in UN News Centre, “Sudan: Annan Calls for Expanded International Presence to Stop Darfur Attacks,” New York, September 3, 2004; available at www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=11840
108. UNSC 5027th meeting, S/PV.5027, September 2, 2004, p. 3.
109. Francis M. Deng et al., Sovereignty as Responsibility: Conflict Management in Africa (Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1996).
110. For an excellent account of why the United States has adopted an activist role in the Darfur debate, see Samantha Power, “Dying in Darfur: Can the Ethnic Cleansing in Sudan Be Stopped?” New Yorker, August 30, 2004, pp. 270–87.
111. “Powell Declares Genocide in Sudan,” BBC News U.K. Edition, September 9,2004; available at news.bbc. co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3641820.stm.
112. UNSC Res. 1564, September 18, 2004, paras. 2, 3, 7, 9, 12, and 14.
113. S/PV.5040, September 18, 2004, pp. 2–3, 5,7, and 10.
114. By “foreign” the communiqué evidentiy meant non-Africa.“Final Communiqué: African Mini-Summit on Darfur,” Tripoii, Libya, October 17, 2004, p. 2.
115. S/PV.5040, September 18, 2004, p. 12.
116. “Final Communiqué: African Mini-Summit on Darfur,”., p. 10.
117. Human Rights News, “Darfur: Donors Must Address Atrocities Fueling Crisis,” Human Rights Watch, New York, September 27, 2004; available at hrw.org/eng lish/docs/2004/09/27/darfur9390.htm.
118. UN News Centre, “Sudan Has Failed to Disarm Militias or Prevent More Attacks in Darfur-UN Envoy,” New York, October 5, 2004; available at www.un.org/apps/news/storyAr.asp?NewsID=12134.
119. UN News Centre, “Sudan: UN Reports 10 Percent Jump in Number of People in Darfur Who Need Aid,” New York, October 22, 2004; available at www.un.org/apps/news/storyAr.asp?NewsID=12314
120. UN News Centre, “Humanitarian Aid in Sudan Limited by Insecurity, Road Closures, Says UN Mission,” New York, October 27, 2004; available at www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=12360.
121. Cited in “Prompt Action Needed in Darfur,” BBC News World Edition, November 4, 2004.
122. Christian W. D. Bock and Leland R. Miller, “Darfur: Where is Europe?” Washington Post, December 9, 2004, p.A33.
123. Quoted in Gamal Nkrumah, “Darfur in Flames,” Al-Ahram (Cairo), April 29-May 5, 2004; available at weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/688/frm.htm.
124. S/PV.5109, January 11,2005, pp. 2–3.
125. “Report of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur to the United Nations Secretary-General,” Geneva, January 25 2005, p. 4; available at www.reliefweb.int/library/documents/2005/ici-sud-25feb.pdf.
126. See Peter Heinlein, “UN Security Council Deadlocked over Darfur,” Voice of America News, March 18, 2005; available at www.voanews.com/english/2005–03–18-voa10.cfm.
127. UNSC 5158th meeting, S/PV.5158, March 31,2005, p. 3.
128. “Sudan Peace Agreement Signed 9 January Historic Opportunity, Security Council Told,” UN Press Release, SC/8306, February 8, 2005.
129. UNSC Res. 1590, March 24,2005, paras. 4 and 5.
130. Reuters, “US Resolution Calls for UN Peacekeeping Mission in Sudan,”February 15,2005; available at global policy.igc.org/security/issues/sudan/2005/0215draftuse. htm.
131. UNSC 5153th meeting S/PV.5153,March 29,2005,pp. 2–5.
132. For a discussion, see Bellamy, Kosovo and International Society, p. 68.