International Humanitarian Order

Michael Barnett is the Harold Stassen Chair of International Relations at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs and an adjunct professor of political science at the University of Minnesota.

In this outstanding collection of new and previously published essays, one of the leading scholars of the international humanitarian order takes stock of developments that have been vastly consequential since the end of the Cold War. In developing his arguments Michael Barnett is intellectually incisive and politically astute. This book is required reading for all who are interested in the profound changes that have affected world politics during the last two decades.Peter J. KatzensteinWalter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies, Cornell UniversityOver the past fifteen years, Michael Barnett has emerged as the most thoughtful American scholarly voice on the dilemmas of humanitarianism. In these penetrating essays, he ranges widely, probing the role of political pragmatism and the impulse for moral transcendence in shaping contemporary humanitarianism. Jack Snyder, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Relations, Columbia UniversityRelying on personal experience and academic prudence, Barnett's collection does a wonderful job of interrogating the rise of the International Humanitarian Order. Always insightful but never losing balance and perspective, Barnett refreshingly focuses on the intermeshing of ethics and power and, in so doing, overcomes the one-sidedness of much of the thinking on this topic.David Chandler, Professor of International Relations, University of WestminsterBarnett’s breadth of expertise is complemented by his practical experience and he thus conveys an authoritative analysis that is surely unique in academic literature...this is a provocative, compelling and indeed inspiring book. Aidan Hehir, University of Westminster, Political Studies Review, Vol 10:3, Sept. 2012This volume provides us a vital opportunity to think and rethink ethically about how we understand and practice humanitarian activies, how we place ourselves in this 'living humanitariansim', and how we face our own moral duties in international relations.Madoka Futamura, United Nations University

• 1. Introduction: The International Humanitarian Order Section 1: UN and World Order 2. Bringing in the New World Order: Legitimacy, Liberalism, and the United Nations World Politics 3. The New U.N. Politics of Peace: From Juridical Sovereignty to Empirical Sovereignty." Global Governance 4. The United Nations and Global Security: The Norm is Mightier Than the Sword 5. Humanitarianism with a Sovereign Face: UNHCR in the Global Undertow Section 2: The Ethics of Intervention 6. The Politics of Indifference at the United Nations: The Security Council, Peacekeeping, and Genocide in Rwanda 7. UNHCR and the Ethics of Repatriation. 8. Building a Republican Peace: Stabilizing States After War 9. Humanitarianism Transformed. 10. Conclusion: Beyond the International Humanitarian Order?