The extent to which humanitarian intervention has become a legitimate practice in post-cold war international society is the subject of this book. It maps the changing legitimacy of humanitarian intervention by comparing the international response to cases of humanitarian intervention in the cold war and post-cold war periods. Crucially, the book examines how far international society has recognised humanitarian intervention as a legitimate exception to the rules
of sovereignty and non-intervention and non-use of force. While there are studies of each case of intervention-in East Pakistan, Cambodia, Uganda, Iraq, Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Kosovo-there is no
single work that examines them comprehensively in a comparative framework. Each chapter tells a story of intervention that weaves together a study of motives, justifications and outcomes. The legitimacy of humanitarian intervention is contested by the 'pluralist' and 'solidarist' wings of the English school, and the book charts the stamp of these conceptions on state practice. Solidarism lacks a full-blown theory of humanitarian intervention and the book supplies one. This theory is
employed to assess the humanitarian qualifications of the cases of intervention analysed in the book, and this normative assessment is then compared to the moral practices of states. A key focus is to
examine how far humanitarian intervention as a legitimate practice is present in the diplomatic dialogue of states. In exploring how far there has been a change of norm in the society of states in the 1990s, the book defends the broad based constructivist claim that state actions will be constrained if they cannot be legitimated, and that new norms enable new practices but do not determine these. The book concludes by considering how far contemporary practices of humanitarian intervention
support a new solidarism, and how far this resolves the traditional conflict between order and justice in international society.
Industry Reviews
`Review from previous edition Saving Strangers is perhaps the best single book on the much debated topic of humanitarian intervention. Through a careful comparative analysis of the leading cold war and post-cold war interventions,
Wheeler offers a penetrating account of the problems and prospects of armed humanitarianism. He also advances a provocative set of standards for evaluating interventions and explores both the role of norms and the nature of legitimacy in contemporary international society. And he does it all in a style that is at once scholarly and accessible.
'
Jack Donnelly, Andrew W. Mellon Professor, Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver
`Nicholas Wheeler has produced a brilliantly sustained argument in support of an emergent norm of humanitarian intervention. This volume of scholarly excellence gracefully combines a powerful theoretical framework with a series of compelling case studies. Saving Strangers is the one indispensable book that addresses the contested topic of 'humanitarian' recourse to war. It deserves the widest possible readership so as to push academic understanding and
policy debate in desirable directions.
'
Richard Falk is Albert G. Milbank Professor of International Law and Practice at Princeton University
`Wheeler's book is indispensable reading for anyone wanting to be introduced to the debate on HI. His attempt at developing a theory of humanitarian intervention is path breaking and will certainly open up a new phase of academic
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debate on the topic Journal of International Relations and Development 4/1 March 2001
`well organised, especially in terms of mastering the factual description as well as the application of theoretical analyses in the context of the eight case studies.
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Journal of International Relations and Development 4/1 March 2001
