Toward a Realist Ethics of Intervention

• Published in: Ethics & international affairs Vol. 19; no. 2; pp. 55 - 72
• Main Author: Wesley, Michael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, USA Cambridge University Press 01.09.2005; Blackwell Publishing Ltd; Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs
• Subjects: Ethics; Foreign policy; Human Rights; Humanitarian Intervention; Humanitarianism; International humanitarian law; International Relations; International relations theory; Intervention after Iraq; Interventionism; Legal norms; Legitimacy; Moral philosophy; Morality; Motivation; Obligation; Political representation; Politics; Realism; Security Policy; Self interest; Traditions; Validity; United States
• ISSN: 0892-6794; 1747-7093
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1747-7093.2005.tb00500.x

Since the September 11 attacks, a new security agenda has swept aside much of the old sensitivity and apathy about intervening in “failing” states. The war on terror has redefined “governance” from concentrating on issues of economic viability and popular rights to a focus on the capacity of states to generate sufficient “order” to deter or capture the agents of the new transnational security threats: terrorists, smugglers, money launderers, the carriers of zoonotic disease. As part of this process, the governance standards of other states became part of Western states' own security agendas, generating new, self-interested incentives for aid and intervention. In this article, I explore the possibilities for developing a realist-informed normative framework for humanitarian intervention in the context of the post–September 11international concern with transnational threats.