Please join the Comparative Politics Workshop on Wednesday, March 8 from 6:30-8:30pm. Our very own Sarah Shah will be presenting her paper, “A War by Any Other Name: Is Military Humanitarianism under R2P Self-defeating?.” The abstract is below and the paper is attached. Come to support your peer, engage in a lively discussion, share free wine and snacks, and network with your department.

Best,
CPW organizing committee

Abstract:

The question of humanitarian intervention is contentious because it tries to square two important ideas – the norm of non-intervention in domestic affairs of sovereign states, and the universalizing norm to protect human lives under international law. This paper takes a consequentialist approach to the issue of military humanitarianism as conceived under the third pillar of the “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) doctrine. I focus on the question of whether military humanitarianism is able to achieve its goal of human protection, in theory and in fact. I examine the case of Libya as it was the first time the third pillar of R2P was invoked.