In the space of just a few months, from March to September 1999, the global community witnessed major interventions in defense of human rights and self-determination in Kosovo and East Timor. Although carried out by different coalitions of forces and acting under quite different mandates, these two interventions continued what appears to be an increased emphasis on humanitarian intervention by the international community at the expense of the long-standing principles of state sovereignty and non-interference in a country's domestic affairs.
Declaring that human rights "have no borders," Pope John Paul II added his voice and moral suasion to the debate on strengthening international humanitarian norms in a major pronouncement in December 1999. That same month, in Venice, the Pugwash Conferences held the first in what will be a series of meetings of the Pugwash Study Group on Intervention, Sovereignty, and International Security. Through a series of continuing workshops, and drawing upon the international Pugwash network of policy specialists and scientists, the study group will work toward bridging the very real differences that exist among nations and regions regarding international intervention to deal with cases of widespread humanitarian abuse and failed states.
This new Pugwash endeavor has its origins in debates generated during a Pugwash workshop in Castellón de la Plana, Spain in July 1999 on the inter-related issues of NATO's intervention in Kosovo, the West's relations with Russia, and the prospect of future military interventions by the international community (for the workshop report, see The Pugwash Newsletter, November 1999). Given the complexity and urgency of the issues discussed in Spain, Secretary General George Rathjens and others in Pugwash were convinced of the need for more in-depth analysis by Pugwash of the important and continuing tensions on issues relating to intervention and sovereignty.
To help plan the work of the study group, a preliminary planning meeting was convened by Pugwash at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in October 1999 in Cambridge, Mass. Participants at this meeting included Carl Kaysen, chair of the Academy's Committee on International Security Studies (CISS), Robert McNamara, Peter Galbraith (former US ambassador to Croatia), Gen. William Nash (commander of Task Force Eagle, a multinational division in Bosnia, in 1995-96), Owen Harries (National Interest), Paul Doty, and Steven Miller, co-chair of US Pugwash. The group discussed the implications of the Kosovo intervention being seen as a precedent for future military interventions by the international community, and the need especially for a group like Pugwash to seek common ground among sharply divergent international attitudes on the legitimacy and feasibility of humanitarian interventions.
Pugwash then convened the first meeting of the international Study Group on Intervention, Sovereignty and International Security. A total of 23 participants from eleven countries took part in the two and a half-day workshop, which was held at the Istituto Ciliota in Venice.
For the study group's first meeting, Venice could not have been a more appropriate venue. From the 13th to the 18th centuries, the Venetian Republic commanded an empire based on commerce rather than military subjugation, on civic liberty and participation rather than authoritarianism. Lauded by Petrarch in the 14th century as "mighty in its possessions, but mightier by its virtue," the Republic set a marker for the conduct of international affairs and how the international community might reconcile the deep divisions that exist over the sanctity of the individual versus that of the state.
At its initial meeting, the Study Group focused specifically on what could be called 'first-order issues' regarding intervention (e.g., concepts of international law, the UN Charter, the international politics of intervention, and various types of intervention). Subsequent workshops will focus more on the operational issues of intervention and the need for more effective post-conflict reconciliation and reconstruction strategies.
From the Venice workshop come these essays, as the first issue of a new publication series, The Pugwash Occasional Papers. These contributions from Hugh Beach, Alain Pellet, and Gwyn Prins analyze, respectively: issues of secession, legitimacy, and just war theory as they relate to Kosovo; tensions between intervention and sovereignty from the perspective of international law; and the international politics of intervention in general, and the deep divisions separating western concepts of intervention from those in Russia, China and much of the developing world, in particular. Quite purposively, this first volume of The Pugwash Occasional Papers explores in depth those attitudes and arguments (mostly western) in favor of humanitarian intervention, even when such intervention lacks a formal mandate from the United Nations. Future issues of the Occasional Papers will explore equally the reservations regarding intervention held in Russia, China and many developing countries, and will focus as well on the operational aspects of intervention, such as the role of sanctions, trends in military intervention, and lessons learned from previous interventions in Somalia and Rwanda.
In launching this new publication series (the essays will also be available on the Pugwash website), Pugwash aims to disseminate innovative analysis and policy prescriptions on controversial issues facing the global community to as wide an audience as possible of policymakers, the media, NGOs, and the research community. Comments from members of the Pugwash community and others are always welcome, and can be sent by email to pugwash@amacad.org.
Pugwash would like to express its appreciation to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and to the Cyrus Eaton Foundation for their support of The Pugwash Occasional Papers and the Pugwash Study Group on Intervention, Sovereignty and International Security.
Jeffrey Boutwell
Editor - Pugwash Occasional Papers
www.pugwash.org
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