A pragmatic approach to humanitarian intervention

This paper sketches several elements critical to successful reform of the intervention ‘regime’: the norms and institutions which shape and regulate humanitarian intervention.

It argues that reform must be achieved through an open process that balances capacity to function with its perceived legitimacy. Reform of the system must proceed along two ‘tracks’

• the technical/material architecture
• the normative architecture

One vehicle for reform of the normative architecture is the negotiation of a General Assembly Resolution – a means of codifying the norms of intervention.