American humanitarian interventions

Abstract

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, humanitarian intervention became an important pillar in the emerging new world order. From 1989 to 1995, 96 violent civil confrontations have occurred, but 91 of them did not result in humanitarian interventions. Here comes the question: Why? Why there were interventions in Iraq, Bosnia, and Kosovo and not in Rwanda, the Sudan, and Tajikistan? These are the main questions that the following study aims to answer. Particularly, the issue of American humanitarian intervention is scrutinized. The casual factors of interventions are examined to explain the selectivity of American Humanitarianism. Furthermore, a theory building is initiated to outline a model of variables which will allow to explain the combination of which casual factors leads to which form of intervention or non-intervention.