'Endless wars of altruism'? Human rights, humanitarianism and the Syrian war. Issue 5 (28th May 2019)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- 'Endless wars of altruism'? Human rights, humanitarianism and the Syrian war. Issue 5 (28th May 2019)
- Main Title:
- 'Endless wars of altruism'? Human rights, humanitarianism and the Syrian war
- Authors:
- Dixon, Paul
- Abstract:
- ABSTRACT: This article argues that Liberal Hawks have used a Human Rights-based narrative to legitimise war in the post-Cold War era. Liberal Hawks in the UK and the USA have allied with Neoconservatives to form a powerful coalition to advocate for 'humanitarian intervention' to 'protect human rights' and 'prevent genocide'. A particular interpretation of a human rights-based approach has been used to justify war by presenting these rights as natural, absolute, universal and non-political. Those in the human rights movement have advocated this interpretation but it has also become influential on humanitarian NGOs. The impact of this RBA is that humanitarian NGOs has generally become more ambitious and shifted from the provision of needs-based, immediate relief to the advocacy of military intervention to sustain longer-term transformation through democratisation and state-building. The capture of humanitarianism by this 'rights-based' narrative has created a powerful Liberal Hawk argument for war as a policy instrument. The arguments of Labour Hawks, Hilary Benn MP and Jo Cox MP, for more extensive British military involvement in Syria in 2015 are used to show how arguments to end human rights abuses and provide humanitarian assistance are effectively arguments to escalate war.
- Is Part Of:
- International journal of human rights. Volume 23:Issue 5(2019)
- Journal:
- International journal of human rights
- Issue:
- Volume 23:Issue 5(2019)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 23, Issue 5 (2019)
- Year:
- 2019
- Volume:
- 23
- Issue:
- 5
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2019-0023-0005-0000
- Page Start:
- 819
- Page End:
- 842
- Publication Date:
- 2019-05-28
- Subjects:
- Syria -- rights-based -- humanitarian -- human rights -- war
Human rights -- Periodicals
Civil rights -- Periodicals
323 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/fjhr20/current ↗
http://www.tandfonline.com/ ↗
http://www.ingenta.com/isis/browsing/AllIssues/ingenta;jsessionid=e2be88hkkqei1.circus?journal=pubinfobike://fcp/jhr ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1080/13642987.2017.1314644 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 1364-2987
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 4542.288550
British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 10984.xml