Prairie Public Presents: Does Humanitarian Intervention Cause More Harm than Good?

April 23, 2018, The international community currently faces a global refugee crisis and mass atrocities in Iraq, Myanmar, Syria, Yemen, and beyond. How should the West respond? Proponents of humanitarian intervention – the use of force to halt human rights abuses – argue that the world’s most powerful militaries have a responsibility to protect innocent civilians around the world. But opponents argue that military intervention is a form of imperialism, and that it often worsens the conflicts it sets out to solve.