The Dilemmas Of U.S. Humanitarian Intervention In The Post-Cold War Era-deviation Between Idea And Reality

In the theoretical analysis perspective of Just War theory, this paper makes a brief discussion on the historical development of US foreign interference policy and its impacts on the U.S. Humanitarian Intervention policy and foreign military operations after the Cold War.The U.S. Humanitarian Intervention is the result from historical development. With the purpose of winning the world hegemony, it started from Roosevelt’s New Monroe Doctrine, and has developed and evolved into one part of America’s basic diplomatic concept after two World Wars and the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. As the times changes, the U.S. Humanitarian Intervention reflected in different objectives, such as:Anti-Imperialism, The Containment of Communism and Human right defense, however, its basic idea has not been changed, that is to prevent or deter external forces giving threats to U.S. security and its self-interests. The Humanitarian Intervention policy is the new diplomatic strategy taken by the U.S. after the Cold War. The U.S. security strategy in 1994 had explicitly indicated was the "interference". "The U.S. leadership in the world has never been so important. If we could play a leading role in foreign countries, we would make the U.S. much safer and more prosperous."1Chapter 1 of the paper, the Introduction includes three aspects:propose questions, introduce the current researches on the U.S. Humanitarian Intervention policy by the academic circles at home and abroad, and introduces the research methods in this paper. Chapter 2 mainly researches the basis for the U.S. Humanitarian Intervention, which is the "Just War theory" by Michael Walzer. This theory is divided into Jus ad bellum, jus in bello and jus post bellum, while here we have to admit that the discussion on foreign interference policy from Roosevelt’s "New Monroe Doctrine" to the post-Cold War Humanitarian Intervention. Chapter 3 mainly researches the implementation of the U.S. foreign interference policy, which includes two aspects of "National Security Interests" and "Foreign Policy Concepts", and conducts the in-depth discussion. The intervention based on "National Security Interests" and "Foreign Policy Concepts" has the main following characteristics:the unilateral humanitarian intervention, the US-led collective intervention, the intervention under the multilateral cooperation between nations and societies, as well as the subsequent negative interference. According to different interference method, Chapter 4&5 select the corresponding cases to study. Firstly, Chapter 4 analyzes several positive interventions by the US, including the 2003 unilateralism interference in Iraq, the 1998 actions in Kosovo, as well as the US-led interference with NATO allies. Chapter 5 analyzes several negative interventions by the U.S, including the 2011 Libya intervention and the 1994 event in Rwanda. Chapter 6 evaluates the results of the U.S. Humanitarian Intervention, and discusses the flaws in the concept of U.S. Humanitarian Intervention. Meanwhile, the paper points out the limitations on America’s actual decision-making on its Humanitarian Intervention, and re-interprets the deviation between the concepts and realities of the U.S. Humanitarian Intervention policy, as well as the development prospect of its policy.