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Szamuely, George (2016) An analysis of humanitarian intervention in action. Doctoral thesis, London Metropolitan University.
This submission examines the doctrine of humanitarian intervention by focusing on the Western involvement in the violent breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the 1990s and the wars that this ignited. It draws on several publications written over the past decade including "Securing Verdicts: The Misuse of Witness Evidence at The Hague", in Herman E.S. (ed), The Srebrenica Massacre: Evidence, Context, Politics (Szamuely 2011); Herman E.S., Peterson D. & Szamuely G., 2007, "Yugoslavia: Human Rights Watch in Service to the War Party" (Szamuely 2007); and Bombs for Peace: NATO’s Humanitarian War on Yugoslavia (Szamuely, 2014). Academic writers as well as policymakers deem NATO’s bombing of Bosnia in 1994 and 1995 and of Kosovo in 1999 to be exemplars of the successful use of force to secure humanitarian outcomes. This submission examines these claims in light of the standards that the advocates of humanitarian intervention have themselves put forward in order to measure the success or otherwise of any military action undertaken to stop mass atrocities and to save endangered civilians. My findings suggest that, even judged by those standards, NATO’s actions in Bosnia and Kosovo fell well short of success. Far more could have been achieved had diplomatic options been pursued with greater vigor than they actually were.
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