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Humanitarian Intervention The Arab Spring Term Paper

Even if it, the tyranny of the majority would challenge the idea that sovereignty should be the utmost principle by which the world's people guide itself. Conclusion

The United Nations has developed the R2P concept on the basis of its philosophical vision for the world. The organic development of sovereignty in couched in the ideal of control over territories by the people who live there. When the latter condition does not hold, the case for placing the value of sovereignty above the value of humanitarian intervention weakens. Syria was a signatory to R2P, so the regime there understands that not only does it have an obligation to its own people, but that the international community also has an obligation to the Syrian people. It is morally acceptable, therefore, for the international community to override Syria's sovereignty in order to provide humanitarian intervention. Such an intervention would necessarily need to be the work of international actors, and they would need to set aside self-interest in conducting the intervention. This is an ideal vision for the implementation of such an intervention, one that is unlikely to come to pass. Reconciling the ambitions of actors within the international community and the philosophical ideals that drive the doctrine of intervention in the first place will always be a challenge. The international community needs to ensure that it has mechanisms in place for self-policing in order to ensure that the outcomes of the intervention are oriented towards improving the lives of the people in the country subject to the intervention. That said, even if these mechanisms are not in place, Syria agreed to be subject to the R2P doctrine, even knowing that foreign...

Sovereignty should not, of course, be forgotten entirely. The post-intervention stages -- the reconstruction and nation-building stage -- is the place where the sovereignty that was lost can be restored, and hopefully in better condition than was in place before, where sovereignty only reflected the whims of absolute dictator rather than the people at large.
Works Cited:

Finnemore, M. (2002). Constructing norms of humanitarian intervention. The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics. Retrieved November 15, 2012 from http://www.metu.edu.tr/~utuba/Finnemore.pdf

Holzgrefe, J. (2003). The humanitarian intervention debate. Humanitarian Intervention Ethical, legal and political dilemmas. Cambridge University Press.

Philpott, D. (2008) Revolutions in sovereignty: How ideas shaped modern international relations. Princeton University Press.

Powers, G. (2012). Humanitarian intervention in Syria: A classic just war? Huffington Post. Retrieved November 15, 2012 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerard-powers/humanitarian-intervention-and-just-war-in-syria_b_1707436.html

United Nations General Assembly. (2005). Resolution adopted by the General Assembly 2005 World Summit Outcome. United Nations. Retrieved November 15, 2012 from http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N05/487/60/PDF/N0548760.pdf-OpenElement

Weaver, M. (2012). Syria's humanitarian crisis getting 'rapidly worse' UN warns. The Guardian. Retrieved November 15, 2012 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middle-east-live/2012/nov/09/syria-humanitarian-crisis-worsens-un-live

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited:

Finnemore, M. (2002). Constructing norms of humanitarian intervention. The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics. Retrieved November 15, 2012 from http://www.metu.edu.tr/~utuba/Finnemore.pdf

Holzgrefe, J. (2003). The humanitarian intervention debate. Humanitarian Intervention Ethical, legal and political dilemmas. Cambridge University Press.

Philpott, D. (2008) Revolutions in sovereignty: How ideas shaped modern international relations. Princeton University Press.

Powers, G. (2012). Humanitarian intervention in Syria: A classic just war? Huffington Post. Retrieved November 15, 2012 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerard-powers/humanitarian-intervention-and-just-war-in-syria_b_1707436.html
United Nations General Assembly. (2005). Resolution adopted by the General Assembly 2005 World Summit Outcome. United Nations. Retrieved November 15, 2012 from http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N05/487/60/PDF/N0548760.pdf-OpenElement
Weaver, M. (2012). Syria's humanitarian crisis getting 'rapidly worse' UN warns. The Guardian. Retrieved November 15, 2012 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middle-east-live/2012/nov/09/syria-humanitarian-crisis-worsens-un-live
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