Humanitarian Intervention and the Evolution of Complex Normative Systems

This research explores the tension between the stability and flexibility of complex normative systems by mapping the interaction among established and emerging normative practices, and discursive justifications thereof. First, I construct a Weberian ideal-typical complex normative systems evolution model that illustrates the processes by which normative practices change. Second, I overlay the aforementioned ideal-type onto a historical narrative regarding the evolution of humanitarian intervention practices in the context of US foreign policy in the 1990s. Through the comparison of the ideal-type and historical narrative I arrive at case-specific adequate, coincidental, and incidental causal factors related to the evolution of complex normative systems, and conclude with a discussion of the transferability of analyticist methodology to international relations research writ large.