In the Cause of Humanity is a major new history of the emergence of the theory and practice of humanitarian intervention during the nineteenth century when the question of whether, when and how the international community should react to violations of humanitarian norms and humanitarian crises first emerged as a key topic of controversy and debate. Fabian Klose investigates the emergence of legal debates on the protection of humanitarian norms by violent means, revealing how military intervention under the banner of humanitarianism became closely intertwined with imperial and colonial projects. Through case studies including the international fight against the slave trade, the military interventions under the banner of humanitarian aid for Christian minorities in the Ottoman Empire, and the intervention of the United States in the Cuban War of Independence, he shows how the idea of humanitarian intervention established itself as a recognized instrument in international politics and international law.

How should the international community react when a government transgresses humanitarian norms and violates the human rights of its own nationals? And where does the responsibility lie to protect people from such acts of violation? In this profound study, Fabian Klose unites a team of leading scholars to investigate some of the most complex and controversial debates regarding the legitimacy of protecting humanitarian norms and universal human rights by non-violent and violent means. Charting the development of humanitarian intervention from its origins in the nineteenth century through to the present day, the book surveys the philosophical and legal rationales of enforcing humanitarian norms by military means, and how attitudes to military intervention on humanitarian grounds have changed over the course of three centuries. Drawing from a wide range of disciplines, the authors lend a fresh perspective to contemporary dilemmas using case studies from Europe, the United States, Africa and Asia.

Human Rights in the Shadow of Colonial Violence explores the relationship between the human rights movement emerging after 1945 and the increasing violence of decolonization. Based on material previously inaccessible in the archives of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations Human Rights Commission, this comparative study uses the Mau Mau War (1952-1956) and the Algerian War (1954-1962) to examine the policies of two major imperial powers, Britain and France. Historian Fabian Klose considers the significance of declared states of emergency, counterinsurgency strategy, and the significance of humanitarian international law in both conflicts. Klose's findings from these previously confidential archives reveal the escalating violence and oppressive tactics used by the British and French military during these anticolonial conflicts in North and East Africa, where Western powers that promoted human rights in other areas of the world were opposed to the growing global acceptance of freedom, equality, self-determination, and other postwar ideals. Practices such as collective punishment, torture, and extrajudicial killings did lasting damage to international human rights efforts until the end of decolonization. Clearly argued and meticulously researched, Human Rights in the Shadow of Colonial Violence demonstrates the mutually impacting histories of international human rights and decolonization, expanding our understanding of political violence in human rights discourse.

Anhand des Mau-Mau-Kriegs in Kenia und des Algerienkriegs zeigt Fabian Klose, wie ahnlich die Gewaltpolitik und Notstandsmassnahmen der beiden Kolonialmachte Grossbritannien und Frankreich waren. Dabei stehen Fragen der "antisubversiven Militarstrategie" im Mittelpunkt, vor deren Hintergrund die Radikalisierung kolonialer Gewalt in den Dekolonisierungskriegen nach 1945 dargestellt wird. Die These lautet, dass die Gewaltpraktiken der Ausbreitung der Menschenrechte diametral entgegen standen und infolge des Widerstands der Kolonialmachte bis zum Abschluss der Dekolonisation das internationale Menschenrechtsregime lahmten. Methodisch betritt der Autor Neuland, indem er die bisher weitgehend getrennten Forschungsfelder "internationaler Menschenrechtsdiskurs" und "den Prozess der Dekolonisation" zum ersten Mal miteinander verbindet und die wechselseitigen Auswirkungen beider Entwicklungen aufeinander untersucht. Die Dissertation stutzt sich auf neu erschlossenes internationales Archivmaterial, z.B. des Internationalen Komitees vom Roten Kreuz oder der Menschenrechtskommission der Vereinten Nationen."

Die Frage, ob, wann und wie die internationale Gemeinschaft auf Verletzungen humanitarer Normen und damit verbundene humanitare Krisen reagieren soll, gehoert zweifellos zu den vieldiskutierten Themen auf der Agenda der heutigen internationalen Politik. Allerdings tauchte diese Problematik nicht erst am Ende des 20. und zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts ploetzlich aus dem Nichts auf, sondern bereits im Verlauf des "langen 19. Jahrhunderts" setzte man sich kontrovers mit dieser Problematik auseinander. Anhand ausgewahlter Fallbeispiele wie dem Kampf gegen den Sklavenhandel (18071890), den Militarinterventionen der europaischen Grossmachte zur humanitaren Nothilfe fur christliche Minderheiten im Osmanischen Reich (18271878) oder dem Eingreifen der Vereinigten Staaten in den kubanischen Unabhangigkeitskrieg (1898) untersucht Fabian Klose die militarische Praktik und die voelkerrechtlichen Debatten zum Schutz humanitarer Normen gewaltsam einzugreifen. Insgesamt etablierte sich in dieser Epoche die Idee der humanitaren Intervention als ein anerkanntes Instrumentarium in der internationalen Politik. Eine zentrale Schlusselrolle bei der Entstehung eines neuen humanitaren Interventionsverstandnisses ubernahm der bewaffnete internationale Kampf gegen den Sklavenhandel als Urtyp der humanitaren Intervention. Als Folge kam es zur Ausbildung voelkerrechtlicher Leitlinien, die als Begrundung fur das militarische Eingreifen in verschiedenen Krisenregionen dieser Welt dienten. Das "lange 19. Jahrhundert" kann demnach als das genuine "Jahrhundert der humanitaren Intervention" charakterisiert werden, in dem es zu einer signifikanten Verzahnung von militarischem Interventionismus unter dem Banner der Humanitat mit kolonialen und imperialen Projekten kam.

How should the international community react when a government transgresses humanitarian norms and violates the human rights of its own nationals? And where does the responsibility lie to protect people from such acts of violation? In this profound study, Fabian Klose unites a team of leading scholars to investigate some of the most complex and controversial debates regarding the legitimacy of protecting humanitarian norms and universal human rights by non-violent and violent means. Charting the development of humanitarian intervention from its origins in the nineteenth century through to the present day, the book surveys the philosophical and legal rationales of enforcing humanitarian norms by military means, and how attitudes to military intervention on humanitarian grounds have changed over the course of three centuries. Drawing from a wide range of disciplines, the authors lend a fresh perspective to contemporary dilemmas using case studies from Europe, the United States, Africa and Asia.