Eric A. Heinze
State University of New York Press, (January 2009)
http://www.sunypress.edu/details.asp?id=61743
About the book: This book seeks to address the subject of humanitarian intervention in a way that permits a synthesis among its ethical, legal and political dimensions. The author examines three separate ethical, legal and political questions that arise in the study of humanitarian intervention: How severe must human suffering be before military intervention is considered? Can there be commensurate legal grounding for such an argument? Which actors are the most appropriate agents of intervention? The book argues that the answers to these questions are fundamentally a function of consequentialist reasoning. Drawing from an eclectic mix of ethical, legal and international relations theory, the author seeks to improve the theoretical clarity and consistency of the literature on humanitarian intervention by beginning with a very straightforward consequentialist principle: that any consideration of waging war for humanitarian purposes must ultimately seek to minimize human suffering. Waging Humanitarian War will be of particular interest to students and researchers of international relations, international ethics, international law and international human rights.
About the author: Eric A. Heinze is Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Oklahoma, USA, and has been a member of the Ethics section since 2008. His articles have been published in various journals, including Global Governance, Political Science Quarterly, Polity, the International Journal of Human Rights, Parameters, the Journal of International Political Theory, and the Journal of Military Ethics. Heinze's current and recent work is on humanitarian military intervention, the politics of genocide, the ethical and legal implications of the Iraq war and the “war on terror,” and the role of non-state actors in armed conflict. His current project is an edited volume (with Brent Steele) titled Ethics, Authority and War: Non-State Actors and the Just War Tradition and is under contract with Palgrave.
Contact: eheinze@ou.edu
