Canada’s human security agenda in Kosovo and beyond: military intervention versus conflict prevention

ID:	HARP-196
Title:	Canada’s human security agenda in Kosovo and beyond: military intervention versus conflict prevention
Source:	International Journal , v.57(3) Summ’02 pg 459-479
Parties:
Dispute Resolution Organ:
Year:	2002
Pages:	0
Author(s):
Keywords:	Canada, human rights, peace, foreign policy, civil and political rights, security, The War Over Kosovo, North Atlantic Treaty Organiation (NATO), Department of Foreign Affairs and International Tr, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), liberty
Abstract:	THE WAR OVER KOSOVO IN 1999 continues to raise serious concerns. A tendency to portray the North Atlantic Treaty Organiation (NATO) as the victorious moral leader, with `good’ prevailing over `evil,’ does not help to clarify the situation. The conflict was much more complicated – Albanians and Serbs both incited violence and committed atrocities in varying degrees over many years. Moreover, the West has to take some responsibility for helping to create and to exacerbate what became a major crisis. Nor does the moral proclamation by Canada’s then foreign minister, Lloyd Axworthy, address long-term conflict prevention or the contradictory dimensions of Canada’s human security agenda. Instead, Kosovo helped `rescue’ Canada’s beleaguered defence establishment, as some in the military see support for the human security idea as a new role for defence. Officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) have also reinforced the human security notion, built on `success’ in Kosovo, to justify possible `humanitarian’ military intervention elsewhere. Something is askew here, given that the human security concept attained initial credibility in the development-oriented and largely non-military vision of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in its Human Development Report 1994. UNDP raised hopes for a post-cold war `peace dividend’ to be generated by new international aid for sustainable human development.
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