Intervention in Nation States

I've had Clive Soley (MP)'s Fabian 2 piece bookmarked for a while and have only just got around to giving it the attention it deserves. A very worthwhile read and very much in tune with my thoughts on these things.

Until the post war period it was taken as given that an Englishman’s home was his castle. The man could assault his wife and children without provoking outside intervention except in the most extreme cases. On the other hand if he did this in a public place he could be restrained and arrested.

We have a similar approach in international relations. Iraq invades Kuwait and we intervene. Saddam Hussein attacks his own people in his own country and we pass resolutions – much as my parents would do when we passed a home where you could hear the screams of the woman and children being beaten. They would say, “It must be awful living there – I wonder why she doesn’t leave him”. It took us many years to reject that argument. Now we expect the abuser to be removed and the left is rightly proud of this change in policy and social attitudes. So why doesn’t it apply to the nation state?

The 'Blair Doctrine' - the Doctrine of the International Community outlined in 1999 makes a case for intervention in domestic conflict and Clive's pamphlet is a great contribution to the debate.

If we can establish and spread the values of liberty, the rule of law, human rights and an open society then that is in our national interests too. The spread of our values makes us safer. - Tony Blair

Posted by Paul in Global Policy Politics at June 3, 2004 04:00 AM | 0 Comments