first review www.theglobalsite.ac.uk 2001

Oliver Ramsbotham

Solidarism

Wheeler, N., Saving Strangers: Humanitarian Intervention in International Society, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, ISBN: 0198296215

Nicholas Wheeler’s keenly anticipated book on humanitarian intervention has been worth the wait. Since his 1992 Millennium study of Hedley Bull’s and John Vincent’s struggles with the contradictory pulls of pluralist and solidarist approaches, he has been wrestling with the challenge of finding what he describes here as ‘a comprehensive framework for deciding what is to count as a legitimate humanitarian intervention’ (12). In other words, while fully aware of realist and pluralist objections, he unashamedly embraces the solidarist perspective, and tries both to embed this firmly within an adequate theory of international society and to apply it critically to post-1945 experience. The long gestation of this book is evident in the admirably sure-footed way in which the author moves through this notoriously treacherous landscape. He is judicious in his selection of emphasis, weighty and considered in evaluation, and mercifully lucid in expression. To sustain what is, in effect, a single elaborate argument through more than 300 closely reasoned pages without confusing or exhausting the reader is a considerable feat. He will not convince everyone (witness his sharp disagreement with one of his closest colleagues, Ken Booth, on the legitimacy of the Kosovo intervention), but for this reviewer, admittedly already predisposed to agree, he is highly persuasive. This is by far the best presentation of the solidarist case, stronger than Fernando Tesón’s 1988 classic because broader in range and more closely argued and exemplified.

In terms of theory, the traditional ‘English School’ approach to conceptualising the international collectivity, already richer in its embracing of pluralist and solidarist dimensions of international society than some critics have supposed, is further enriched by constructivist understandings. The handling of this material, ranging as it does from Bourdieu to Wendt, and including legal as well as political aspects, is exemplary in its economy and selectivity (the only surprising omission is Mervyn Frost). The upshot is a powerful critique of the realist assumption that state interest is categorically distinct from legitimating reason, and the opening up of space for seeing normative justification as a means to overcome constraints on state action. This is a convincing (and inspiring) vision of international society as an evolving entity, where existing constraints are clearly understood, but future directions are shaped by collectively determined values.

One of the great merits of the extensive case study chapters is that the relatively neglected humanitarian intervention debate of the 1970s is here revivified by being related to that of the 1990s. This cuts through prevalent assumptions that the ‘unilateral’ debate of the past has been superseded by the ‘collective’ debate of the present. The focus of this book is not so much on what scope there is when (as on occasion in the 1990s) the UN Security Council widens its terms of reference under Chapter VII to include the enforcement of global humanitarian norms, but what should happen when (as for example in the 1970s and again albeit more ambiguously over Rwanda in spring 1994 and Kosovo in 1999) there is no such consensus. The author searches here for a possible ‘solidarist third way that legitimates humanitarian intervention when the Security Council is prevented from authorizing the use of force… and that does not jeopardize existing restraints upon the use of force’ (294).

Does Nicholas Wheeler succeed in his argument that ‘a practice of unilateral humanitarian intervention can support a new solidarity in the society of states based on the reconciliation of the imperatives of order and justice’ (17)? If we agree (i) that there are legally defined humanitarian norms endorsed by most states, (ii) that states forfeit domestic legitimacy when they flout these norms by egregiously violating the human rights of their citizens, (iii) that they thereby also forfeit international legitimacy and as a result lay themselves morally open to external intervention to remedy the situation, and (iv) that to be legitimate such intervention must be carried out in accordance with an internationally endorsed framework for decision and action, then a strong if conditional case has been made for humanitarian intervention even where explicit Security Council endorsement is absent. This is as much as the book claims to do. In addition, the author gives us well-considered criteria for deciding what is to count as legitimate humanitarian intervention, and tests them in specific cases. In this way he succeeds in showing how legitimate grounds for unilateral humanitarian intervention (not just as a right but as a duty) can be derived from a sophisticated understanding of the nature of international society as it already exists. What he leaves undeveloped is a general answer to the question who is likely to have the authority to make these decisions, and who is likely to have the power and legitimacy to carry them out if the doctrine is to count as universal. This requires further thought about how international society needs to evolve in the future if it is ever to become a genuine international community.

Saving Strangers is an outstanding contribution and is essential reading for all those interested in the subject.