International Interventions

This chapter explores the relationship between state sovereignty and the vexed question of intervention. While the sovereign state has become the dominant political unit in the international system, the rights afforded to ostensibly sovereign states remain prey to power politics, and—especially in recent decades—the rise in support for international human rights. This chapter contrasts the laws governing intervention with actual state practice and notes that while international law has advanced considerably in the past hundred years—in terms of both depth and breadth—there has been little substantive change to the mechanism by which these laws are actually enforced.