This thought-provoking volume makes a significant contribution to debates about intervention. Eschewing conventional approaches to the subject, the book tackles some key issues, from the evolution of humanitarian interventions, the limitations of sovereignty, through to the politics of post-intervention (re)-building and humanitarianism. Important case studies from Timor-Leste to Syria and Libya are also included. This timely book will be of interest to both scholarly and policy audiences.
George Lawson, London School of Economics This rigorous multi-disciplinary volume redefines interventions as attempts at social transformation related to different domains (economic, social, military, humanitarian) and actors (local, national, regional, international), resulting in a much appreciated call to scholars, students and practitioners to study and think of interventions as complex, inter-related, multi-faceted, multi-level political and social processes. The emphasis on local contexts, actors, institutions and power relations as defining factors for understanding the dynamics and outcomes of interventions makes this book a valuable contribution to the literature.
Liesbet Heyse, University of Groningen An invaluable series of studies, rich in theory and varied in substance, that admirably depict the multiple complexities of interventionary diplomacy as it has unfolded in recent decades. Indispensable reading for all those concerned with the shifting parameters of world politics.
Richard Falk, Princeton University