Humanitarian intervention and the responsibility to protect

This study explores humanitarian intervention, defined briefly as using military force to address human rights violations. It looks at the changing norms of humanitarian intervention after the end of the Cold War. It also examines the arguments for and against humanitarian intervention by examining primary and secondary sources, scholarly research, and two personal interviews by the author. It reaches the conclusion that humanitarian intervention is justified morally, as well as being in national and security interests. It analyzes in-depth the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 and the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia from 1992 to 1995. In doing this, the study then draws conclusions on the best way to intervene and suggests reforms are needed within the international system. In conclusion, more resources should be spent on conflict prevention to save those suffering from human rights abuses.