The Lethal Folly of Humanitarian Interventionism

When states fail to safeguard their citizens' human rights, then intervention becomes justified. This ties into the so-called 'responsibility to protect' doctrine, which you argue is not merely a matter of international law but a fully-fledged theory of international order. Rather than producing more liberal and humane states, however, it has inaugurated an era of permanent warfare as well as imperial failure, with the US failing to remodel societies in the Middle East and elsewhere. On this argument, the road to hell is indeed paved with good intentions.

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