Emerging Norms of Justified Intervention

This multi-pronged project, which ran from 1992 to 1995, analyzed how the international community can more effectively respond to threats of ethnic strife, civil war, and genocide. Directed by Carl Kaysen (MIT) and the late Abram Chayes (Harvard Law School), the project explored the ramifications of different types of international intervention (military, political, and economic) across a wide range of scenarios. At a time when the US government was increasing its involvement in international peacekeeping missions, the Academy project engaged the talents of a wide range of academic, governmental, and military specialists to analyze the potential costs and benefits of the international community involving itself in what previously had been considered the internal affairs of nation states.

The first volume produced by the project analyzed the pros and cons of the United Nations, regional organizations, and individual states taking a more activist role regarding issues that previously were considered the domestic preserve of the nation state. A second volume explored norms governing collective international action in Latin American and the Caribbean. The third major project activity was the convening of a working group, under the direction of Carl Kaysen and George Rathjens, that examined case studies of UN and Western interventions (Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Cambodia) to determine whether the availability of a dedicated UN military force at that time might have made such interventions more effective in promoting long-term stability. The group's report resulted in a 1996 Academy publication, "Peace Operations by the United Nations: The Case for a Volunteer UN Military Force," written by Carl Kaysen and George Rathjens.

The Bechtel Foundation, the Ploughshares Fund, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation provided funding for this project.

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