The Left and Humanitarian Intervention

Harry van der Linden, Butler University

Abstract

Bernard Kouchner, founder of the humanitarian aid organization Physicians without Borders, stated some time prior to the NATO intervention in Kosova that “in a world aflame after the Cold War we need to establish a forward-looking right of the world community to actively interfere in the affairs of sovereign nations to prevent an explosion of human rights violations.”1 On his account, it is not enough that humanitarian organizations such as Physicians without Borders or the Red Cross are provided access, by military force if needed, to victims of systematic human rights deprivations; rather, “it is necessary to take the further step of using the right to intervention as a preventive measure to stop wars before they start and to stop murderers before they kill.”2 Kouchner adds that humanitarian interventions must be executed by an “impartial multinational force acting under the authority of international organizations and controlled by them.” More specifically, he maintains that a more democratic United Nations should have the capacity to authorize such interventions.