Reference no: EM132817383 , Length: Word count:- 250

This week you will learn about the practice of UN peacekeeping and the controversy surrounding humanitarian interventions. These are interventions undertaken by a state or a group of states in the internal affairs of another state without their consent in order to prevent an atrocity like genocide, ethnic cleansing or war crimes. Opponents of humanitarian interventions argue that they violate the principle of sovereign non-interference and potentially encourage forms of neo-imperialism by the great powers. Proponents argue that the right to non-interference is contingent upon the willingness and capacity of the government to protect its population from atrocities, and sovereignty does not give governments the right to commit atrocities against their own people.

The argument that humanitarian interventions should never be permitted effectively allows governments to commit genocide against their own people, but the alternative raises a host of difficult ethical and political questions.

Discussion 1: Should humanitarian interventions be permissible? What level of harm should be the threshold beyond which such interventions should be permitted? Who should authorize these interventions? The UN Security Council? Regional organizations? Should unilateral humanitarian interventions be permitted?