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The United Nations and the Politics of Selective Humanitarian Intervention pp 1–28Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Introduction

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Abstract

The introductory chapter presents the questions the book addresses and reviews the current gaps in the relevant research. It gives an overview of the argument: It is claimed that United Nations (UN) intervention decisions are driven by multiple “logics of action” and can only be explained by a combination of normative, material, and institutional factors: (1) the extent of human suffering in a crisis, (2) the extent to which a crisis spills over to neighboring countries and regions, (3) the ability of a target state to resist outside intervention (countervailing power), and (4) the extent to which the UN has committed resources to the resolution of a crisis in the past (sunk costs). It sketches the methodological strategies employed in the study and concludes with a brief outline of the structure of the book.

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  1. University of Reading, Reading, UK

    Martin Binder

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Binder, M. (2017). Introduction. In: The United Nations and the Politics of Selective Humanitarian Intervention. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42354-8_1

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