R2P and Empire: On Dan Kovalik's No More War: How the West Violates International Law by Using ‘Humanitarian’ Intervention to Advance Economic and Strategic Interests, and How Principled Realism Will Reduce Domination Around the World

Abstract

In his impassioned No More War: How the West Violates International Law by Using ‘Humanitarian’ Intervention to Advance Economic and Strategic Interests, human rights lawyer Dan Kovalik makes the case that the recently considered responsibility to protect (R2P) doctrine, which allows for humanitarian intervention in narrowly defined circumstances, is legally and morally untenable. Humanitarian interventions of this kind, Kovalik argues, mask the true imperial interests of those who intervene and perpetuate a colonial legacy of northern domination of the global south. No More War bridges academic and popular discourse, making it an informative read for those involved in the theoretical and legal study of international relations and for policymakers in the field. Nevertheless, Kovalik's book would benefit from a sharper distinction between international norms and laws. Although the impact of the R2P documents on international law is debatable, there is little controversy that the norm surrounding humanitarian intervention has changed. Moreover, as we show, there are reasons to believe that the law has changed as well. Kovalik's book would also have benefited from omitting a number of polemical points, which may alienate readers who might otherwise agree with his core theses.