#146 - Does Humanitarian Intervention Do More Harm Than Good?

Open to Debate

Education, Society & Culture, News, Government, Politics

4.5 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2018

⏱️ 52 minutes

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Summary

Motion: Humanitarian Intervention Does More Harm than Good. The international community currently faces a global refugee crisis and mass atrocities in Iraq, Myanmar, Syria, Yemen, and beyond. How should the West respond? Proponents of humanitarian intervention – the use of force to halt human rights abuses – argue that the world’s most powerful militaries have a responsibility to protect innocent civilians around the world. Beyond saving lives, they argue, intervention deters would-be abusers and ensures global stability, thereby strengthening the liberal world order. But opponents argue that military intervention is thinly veiled Western imperialism, and subsequently, an assault on state sovereignty. And, it’s ineffective: the West, with its military might, increases the death toll and worsens the conflicts it sets out to solve. Further, given recent waves of populism in the U.S., France, and U.K., they suggest that Western nations should spend their time looking inward rather than policing activity around the world. This debate is presented in partnership with The German Marshall Fund's Brussels Forum, broadcast live from Brussels, Belgium. The More We Evolve, The Less We Need God: http://smarturl.it/ReligionDebateTix Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I raise for life for my best friend who we lost to soon.
0:04.0	I raise for life for my mom who was diagnosed with bowel cancer.
0:08.0	I raise for life for my dad who's living with prostate cancer.
0:12.0	I raise for life for everyone who's in cancer.
0:17.0	Who will you, Raceful?
0:19.0	Sign up to your local event at raceforlife.org
0:23.0	And together we will be cancer.
0:27.0	Imporn the ship with headline sponsors Standard Life.
0:33.0	It has gone down in history as a case of moral failure on a massive scale.
0:39.0	The genocide nearly a quarter century ago in the African state of Rwanda
0:44.0	where up to a million people were slaughtered while the outside world watched what was going on
0:49.0	and did almost nothing to stop it.
0:52.0	And yet out of that catastrophe came new impetus for a concept called Humanitarian Intervention.
0:57.0	The idea of the principle that when a state is unable or failing to protect its own people from genocide
1:04.0	and crimes against humanity, then other states have a moral responsibility to go in to protect the vulnerable
1:10.0	and to use military force if necessary.
1:14.0	And a quarter century on how has that principle worked out in practice?
1:19.0	In places where it's been tried say Kosovo or Libya.
1:23.0	Does the record show that on balance such interventions are successful or on balance
1:29.0	do unintended consequences take over and undermine the goal?
1:34.0	And right now with what's going on in Syria, what's unfolding there, does the past argue for humanitarian intervention there or the opposite?
1:44.0	Well, we think this has the makings of a debate.
	...

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