Abstracts Law

Humanitarian Intervention in an Era of ‘War on Terror’ - Is Humanitarianism Fading in the Midst of Terrorism?

by Andersson Mathias

This paper explores how the concept of humanitarian intervention and the responsibility to protect (R2P) have fared almost 15 years after the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) published its ground-breaking report “The Responsibility to Protect” and the events of 9/11 shattered the international community. Although, a fair amount of time has passed ever since, the consequences of the ‘War on Terror’ on the dichotomous debate about sovereign rights of states and human rights and security is far from reaching agreement in the scientific literature. Instead of looking at structural transformations that began with the attacks on US soil to draw conclusions on the question of inquiry, this project report looks at the very heart of the central decision-making bodies of the UN and the AU and its resolutions on military interventions on three cases, namely Libya, Mali, and Syria. The project’s findings indicates a favouring position of humanitarian causes over the threat of terrorism to legitimize an intervention in the three investigated cases. Advisors/Committee Members: Laust, Schounborg (advisor).