Forcible Humanitarian Intervention: Practical Objections to the Ethical Principles and Applications

This paper addresses three categories of objection to the use of direct military coercive force for humanitarian reasons. They are; practical feasibility, moral acceptability and political viability. These three categories are not totally exclusive, but most objections will fall into one or more of them. The analysis of the objections provides a guide to when and how such force may be implemented, and under what circumstances it should be implemented. The moral acceptability of using force to try to resolve international conflicts is problematic. If a civil and caring society professes concern about human rights then it is difficult to argue that some sort of obligation does not exist to do something effective to address clear and repeated gross abuses of human rights. A purely pragmatic approach when addressing some of the worst and most wanton human rights abuses will not be successful without the support of a robust moral position. The use of force under certain circumstances is ethically justifiable and morally required