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Humanitarian Intervention and Great Power Management in a Post-hegemonic World Order

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Power Transition in the Anarchical Society

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Abstract

This chapter examines the resort to humanitarian intervention in the unfolding post-hegemonic, multipolar and regionalized world order with Libya, Côte d’Ivoire, Syria and Mali as the main cases. It argues that humanitarian crisis management at the United Nations Security Council is shaped by the underlying fundamental institution of great power management and the associated practices of concert, soft balancing and hard balancing, which are back as real options after the end of US hegemony. Furthermore, there is strong evidence that great power agreement on humanitarian intervention and the legitimacy of such steps depends on the initiatives and involvement of regional organizations. In the African context, the regional organizations typically seek to align humanitarian principles with concerns for state building. This indicates that humanitarian intervention has become post-hegemonic, rather than obsolete.

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Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the ISA Annual Convention 2021, April 6th–9th, Las Vegas (online). We would like to thank the participants and especially Cornelia Navari for helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Royal Danish Defence College, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Peter Viggo Jakobsen

  2. Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

    Tonny Brems Knudsen

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  1. Peter Viggo Jakobsen
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Correspondence to Tonny Brems Knudsen .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

    Tonny Brems Knudsen

  2. Buckingham, UK

    Cornelia Navari

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Jakobsen, P.V., Knudsen, T.B. (2022). Humanitarian Intervention and Great Power Management in a Post-hegemonic World Order. In: Knudsen, T.B., Navari, C. (eds) Power Transition in the Anarchical Society. Palgrave Studies in International Relations. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97711-5_11

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