Insurrection and Intervention
The Two Faces of Sovereignty

An investigation into the philosophical and ethical dimensions of humanitarian intervention, addressing the double standards of international and domestic sovereignty.

Ned Dobos (Author)

9780521761130, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 October 2011

244 pages
23.6 x 16 x 1.7 cm, 0.53 kg

"...deserves attention, not just from philosophers, legal theorists, and political scientists who work on humanitarian intervention, but also from those working on just war and political authority more generally."
--Daniel Viehoff, University of Sheffield, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

Domestic sovereignty (the right of a government not to be resisted by its people) and international sovereignty (the moral immunity from outside intervention) have both been eroded in recent years, but the former to a much greater extent than the latter. An oppressed people's right to fight for liberal democratic reforms in their own country is treated as axiomatic, as the international responses to the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya illustrate. But there is a reluctance to accept that foreign intervention is always justified in the same circumstances. Ned Dobos assesses the moral cogency of this double standard and asks whether intervention can be consistently and coherently opposed given our attitudes towards other kinds of political violence. His thought-provoking book will interest a wide range of readers in political philosophy and international relations.

Introduction
1. Communal self-determination
2. Costs and consequences
3. Asymmetries in jus ad bellum
4. Asymmetries in jus in bello
5. Humanitarian intervention and national responsibility
6. The issue of selectivity
7. Proper authority and international authorisation
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Social & political philosophy [HPS]