Dying to Help

The use of military force to prevent or stop the systematicviolation of human rights, otherwise known as humanitarianintervention, is a topic immersed in ethical and legal controversy.In this book, Max Matthews addresses this controversy by developinga comprehensive theoretical framework, grounded in the concept ofuniversal human rights, for understanding the pragmatic andnormative contours of this type of military action. He argues thathumanitarian intervention is morally required in certaincircumstances, despite traditional norms of state sovereignty, butthat intervention much conform to a strict set of criteria that heexplains in detail. The author then discusses potential avenues ofreform in international law to accommodate the ethically obligatorynature of humanitarian intervention. The analysis should be usefulfor all who study humanitarian intervention, and especially forpolitical and moral theorists and scholars of internationalhumanitarian law.