Book: 'The Conceit of Humanitarian Intervention'

The Conceit of Humanitarian Intervention by Rajan Menon OUP 2016

One of the more memorable images of 2003 was Pope John Paul II, so unwell he was struggling to sit up, yet using every ounce of energy he possessed to warn President George W Bush not to go to war in Iraq. Rajan Menon reminds us that Iraq was only branded as a humanitarian intervention after no weapons of mass destruction were found. His book demolishes the notion, popular among academics, the UN and some NGOs, that there is such a thing as global civil society and universal human rights.

Menon argues that countries only intervene to help others when the costs and risks are not excessive and will not harm their national interests. He highlights the inconsistency of an "international community" that turns a blind eye to the mass atrocities in Indonesia, Guatemala, Rwanda and Sudan, while intervening in Libya and Iraq. He also shows in distressing detail how useless and even counter-productive the efforts to nation-build in the wake of our interventions (Bosnia, Libya, Iraq) have been.

At the heart of his argument is something all people of faith should ponder: John Gray calls it the myth of historical progress, the belief that history is linear, rather than cyclical. Does humanitarian law really exist in a meaningful sense if it is so selectively invoked? "Treaties and declarations and resolutions record states' agreement that the evil of mass atrocities must be extinguished. But the signatories of these parchments have shown themselves unwilling to undertake concrete obligations with any degree of consistency."

Menon concludes that the global response to the Syrian refugee crisis is proof the international community does not exist. With the exception of Germany, Canada and Sweden, wealthy countries are taking very few refugees, and he notes the reaction of oil-rich Gulf Arab countries who seem to have no interest in helping fellow Arab Muslims in need.

The only quibble with this fascinating book is the author's failure to present non-military interventions such as targeted smart sanctions. If he had explored the other options available, one might feel slightly more hopeful for the human race. As it is, he leaves us to ponder Gray's withering judgement: "Civilisation is natural for humans, but so is barbarism."