Humanitarian Intervention in Kosovo

<p>During 1999 NATO instituted a bombing campaign and other military operations against the former Yugoslavia (Kosovo) in order to restore peace and prevent their humanitarian crisis from causing further conflicts within the Balkans. The justification for these operations was to secure international peace and security in the region and to ensure the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia complied with peace demands made by the Security Council. The debate in the international community arose whether the bombing was justified in order to quell the humanitarian crisis. As a humanitarian intervention it entails complicated legal and moral issues that support this justification. Understanding the legal and moral issues in conflict is important and should be considered by military planners and policy makers. The Kosovo conflict as a humanitarian intervention provides a case study for such an analysis. The legal issues in this monograph are focused on the International Court of Justice case of May 1999 Yugoslavia vs. the United States. The court case brought out that the law is unclear whether humanitarian purposes override use of force under Articles 2(4) 51 and 53. There are also some provisions under customary and traditional law that leave this question open to future interpretation depending on the prevailing political situation. A review of the literature shows that moral arguments for the intervention had and can have a large effect on support or lack thereof in the US and in the international community. This can contribute to the swift initiation or the termination of a humanitarian intervention. These considerations are applicable to 2007 and beyond when military planners and policy makers will need to apply a legal and moral lens to viewing and understanding conflict.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p><br>