Reshaping the Idea of Humanitarian Intervention: Norms, Causal Stories, and the Use of Force Carrie Booth Walling, All Necessary Measures: The United Nations and Humanitarian Intervention (University of Pennsylvania Press 2013).

Authors

Courtney Hillebrecht, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Date of this Version

2014

Citation

Human Rights Quarterly, Volume 36, Number 2, May 2014, pp. 488-492

Comments

Published by Johns Hopkins University Press. Used by permission.

Abstract

With an ongoing human tragedy unfolding in Syria and the international community unable and unwilling to respond, Carrie Booth Walling’s All Necessary Measures reminds us that in international politics, power is “no longer simply about whose military can win but also about whose story can win.”1 That is, the narratives that shape our understanding of the causes and possible solutions of mass violence inherently shape our willingness to act. In this carefully researched and well-reasoned book, Walling argues that scholars and practitioners must take norms seriously, even in the arena of power politics.