Author | Jonathan Moore |
---|---|
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Subject | Humanitarianism |
Publisher | Rowman & Littlefield |
Publication date | 1998 |
Media type | Print (Paperback) |
Pages | 336 |
ISBN | 978-0847690312 |
OCLC | 493883959 |
Hard Choices: Moral Dilemmas in Humanitarian Intervention is a non-fiction compilation book about humanitarianism on the international arena, edited by Jonathan Moore. Noteworthy contributors to the book include: Kofi A. Annan, Rony Brauman, Romeo A. Dallaire, Richard J. Goldstone, J. Bryan Hehir, Michael Ignatieff, Ian Martin, Elizabeth Reid, Mohamed Sahnoun, Mu Sochua, Cornelio Sommaruga, Roger Williamson, and José Zalaquett. It was published in paperback format by Rowman & Littlefield in 1998.
The book received a positive reception from reviews in academic journals including: Foreign Affairs published by the Council on Foreign Relations, [1] Ethics & International Affairs , [2] and International Review of the Red Cross . [3]
Jonathan Moore drew together noteworthy writers to contribute to Hard Choices, including: Kofi A. Annan, Rony Brauman, Romeo A. Dallaire, Richard J. Goldstone, J. Bryan Hehir, Michael Ignatieff, Ian Martin, Elizabeth Reid, Mohamed Sahnoun, Mu Sochua, Cornelio Sommaruga, Roger Williamson, and José Zalaquett. These individuals have backgrounds in humanitarian aid, academia, and global policymaking. The book attempts to analyze international response to humanitarian interventions, and suggest ways to improve these processes.
Hard Choices argues that people on the global stage have modified their thoughts regarding humanitarian interventions after striving to assist in aid to Somalia. World leaders observed that initiatives crafted to help with basic problems and promote stability in the region ended up having unfortunate negative consequences.
Groups wishing to assist in such matters including nongovernmental organizations, the United Nations, and sovereign armies found they were unclear as to the best method to apply to situations where countries require humanitarian aid. These problems, including those derived from economic inequity, are further muddied due to interests of multiple different stakeholders. The authors assert that further resources should be devoted to addressing moral challenges worldwide.
In addition to Somalia, the book addresses humanitarian problems caused by conflicts in Bosnia, Cambodia, Haiti, and Rwanda. Major issues grappled with by the authors include problems caused by international sales in the defense industry, global refugees, international sanctions, economic impact of HIV/AIDS, and human rights. The contributors argue that these complex problems may be mitigated through discussion and analysis motivated by a desire to raise the level of quality involved in choices taken by world leaders during policymaking regarding humanitarian intervention.
Hard Choices was sponsored by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). [4] Jonathan Moore had been asked by the ICRC in 1996 to produce a monograph which would examine issues surrounding humanitarian intervention. [5]
The book was first published in paperback format by Rowman & Littlefield in 1998. [6] It was published in an eBook format in the same year. [7] Rowman & Littlefield released a hardcover edition in 1999. [8]
Hard Choices was reviewed in the journal Foreign Affairs published by the Council on Foreign Relations. [1] In the review, Eliot A. Cohen observed that the book confronted "uncomfortable truths". [1] Cohen concluded, "Whether medieval politics can control, much less eliminate, medieval brutality is the unanswered question that hangs over this book." [1] The New York Times discussed the work and cited contributors Rony Brauman and Mary B. Anderson in an article about problematic issues surrounding disaster relief. [9]
Ethics & International Affairs published a review of the book by Nicholas Xenos, who wrote: "The practitioners who reflect on their experience here strike a consistent theme: Many difficult decisions had to be made, along with trade-offs between consistent concern for human rights and the desire to provide safety, needs assistance, or developmental aid." [2]
In a review in International Review of the Red Cross , Frédéric Mégret commented: "Hard Choices argues convincingly in favour of a moral pragmatism that rejects any form of extremism." [3] Mégret's review concluded: "Awareness of the existence of ethical challenges is already a step towards taking them into account. In this regard Hard Choices is a remarkably frank attempt to consider the consequences and the shortcomings of humanitarian intervention." [3]
Médecins Sans Frontières USA include the book among their recommended reading for potential field and office staff. [10]
Humanitarian aid is material and logistic assistance to people who need help. It is usually short-term help until the long-term help by the government and other institutions replaces it. Among the people in need are the homeless, refugees, and victims of natural disasters, wars, and famines. Humanitarian relief efforts are provided for humanitarian purposes and include natural disasters and human-made disasters. The primary objective of humanitarian aid is to save lives, alleviate suffering, and maintain human dignity. It may, therefore, be distinguished from development aid, which seeks to address the underlying socioeconomic factors which may have led to a crisis or emergency. There is a debate on linking humanitarian aid and development efforts, which was reinforced by the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016. However, the conflation is viewed critically by practitioners.
Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre is a Scottish-American philosopher who has contributed to moral and political philosophy as well as history of philosophy and theology. MacIntyre's After Virtue (1981) is one of the most important works of Anglophone moral and political philosophy in the 20th century. He is senior research fellow at the Centre for Contemporary Aristotelian Studies in Ethics and Politics (CASEP) at London Metropolitan University, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, and permanent senior distinguished research fellow at the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture. During his lengthy academic career, he also taught at Brandeis University, Duke University, Vanderbilt University, and Boston University.
Tom Regan was an American philosopher who specialized in animal rights theory. He was professor emeritus of philosophy at North Carolina State University, where he had taught from 1967 until his retirement in 2001.
Humanitarian intervention is the use or threat of military force by a state across borders with the intent of ending severe and widespread human rights violations in a state which has not given permission for the use of force. Humanitarian interventions are aimed at ending human rights violations of individuals other than the citizens of the intervening state. Humanitarian interventions are only intended to prevent human rights violations in extreme circumstances. Attempts to establish institutions and political systems to achieve positive outcomes in the medium- to long-run, such as peacekeeping, peace-building and development aid, do not fall under this definition of a humanitarian intervention.
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The International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) was an ad hoc commission of participants which in 2001 worked to popularize the concept of humanitarian intervention under the name of "Responsibility to protect". The Commission was instigated in the wake of the Kosovo War by Lloyd Axworthy and the Chretien government in September 2000 and co-chaired by Gareth Evans and Mohamed Sahnoun under the authority of the Canadian Government. Part of its membership was from the UN General Assembly.
Joel H. Rosenthal is a scholar, teacher, and executive best known for his work in ethics and international affairs. He is currently president of Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. He lectures frequently at universities and public venues across the United States and around the world.[1]
José "Pepe" Zalaquett Daher was a Chilean lawyer, renowned for his work in the defence of human rights during the de facto regime that governed Chile under General Augusto Pinochet from 1973 to 1990.
Rony Brauman is a French physician specializing in tropical diseases and a former president of Médecins sans frontières
Frances Vryling Harbour (1953–2013) was an associate professor of government at George Mason University, in the United States. She died on December 19, 2013.
Elisa Aaltola is a Finnish philosopher, specialised in animal philosophy, moral psychology and environmental philosophy.
Thomas G. Weiss is a distinguished international diplomat and scholar of international relations and global governance with special expertise in the politics of the United Nations, where he himself served in various high-ranking roles. He was named a 2016 Andrew Carnegie Fellow for a project exploring the concept of a world without the United Nations. Since 1998, he has been Presidential Professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and is Director Emeritus of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies. At present, he also is co-chair, Cultural Heritage at Risk Project, J. Paul Getty Trust; Distinguished Fellow, Global Governance, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs; Global Eminence Scholar, Kyung Hee University, Seoul. In his spare time, he is a wood sculptor.
Virginia Potter Held is an American moral, social/political and feminist philosopher whose work on the ethics of care sparked significant research into the ethical dimensions of providing care for others and critiques of the traditional roles of women in society.
Mohamed Sahnoun was an Algerian diplomat who served as ambassador of Algeria to West Germany, France, the United States, and Morocco as well as permanent representative of Algeria to the United Nations. He also served as the Organisation of African Unity's Assistant Secretary General, the Arab League's Assistant Secretary-general, the Secretary-General of the United Nations's Special Representative for Somalia in 1992 and the Secretary-General of the United Nations's Special Representative for the Great Lakes region of Africa in 1997 before continuing to work for peace and reconciliation through various UN-related or independent charities. He particularly focused on developing intercultural and inter-religious dialogues and on healing wounded memories from past conflicts.
John Hadley is an Australian philosopher whose research concerns moral and political philosophy, including animal ethics, environmental ethics, and metaethics. He is currently a senior lecturer in philosophy in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts at Western Sydney University. He has previously taught at Charles Sturt University and the University of Sydney, where he studied as an undergraduate and doctoral candidate. In addition to a variety of articles in peer-reviewed journals and edited collections, he is the author of the 2015 monograph Animal Property Rights and the 2019 monograph Animal Neopragmatism. He is also the co-editor, with Elisa Aaltola, of the 2015 collection Animal Ethics and Philosophy.
Donald Clayton Hubin is an American philosopher, specializing in ethics, legal philosophy and political philosophy. He has published research on justice and future generations, parental rights, paternity, instrumental rationality and benefit-cost analysis, among other topics. Hubin is a professor emeritus in the Department of Philosophy at Ohio State University and the Founding Director Emeritus of its Center for Ethics and Human Values. He serves as the Chair of the national board of National Parents Organization.
Hugo John Robertson Slim is a British academic and policy advisor in International Relations specialising in the ethics of war and humanitarian aid.
Steven C. Roach is an American professor of International Relations who writes on global ethics, the politics of international law, critical international theory, minority rights, and South Sudan's politics. He is Professor of International Relations and former Director of Graduate Programs at the School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies at the University of South Florida.
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Adam Daniel Moore is a philosopher and Professor at the University of Washington's Information School. He conducts research and teaches in the areas of information ethics, social and political philosophy, philosophy of law, and normative ethical theory.