How Syrian Crisis Testing British Commitment to Humanitarian Intervention

Insights from the Field

civilian casualties

humanitarian intervention

horizontal contestation

UK government

Challenging Humanitarian Intervention in the 21st century: British Domestic Actors and Horizontal Foreign Policy Contestation during the Syrian Crisis was authored by Andrea Betti. It was published by Cambridge in JJPS in 2020.

After NATO's Kosovo intervention two decades prior, Western societies showed declining confidence in humanitarian actions abroad.

British Context

This paper examines the 2011-2015 UK debate regarding military action against Syria, focusing on domestic actors' roles.

Dilemmas & Discourse

Government and political parties debated humanitarian intervention (HI), employing strategies to sway decisions.

They referenced earlier British interventions—especially the costly ones in Iraq and Libya—to shape opinions.

Lessons Learned?

MPs increasingly skeptical about past missions noted failures and civilian casualties, questioning HI's effectiveness and legitimacy.

Different Past Comparisons

Historical analogies from earlier conflicts (Iraq/WMD claims; Libya/Gaddafi era) influenced party positions.

These examples led actors to assert greater control over foreign policy decisions concerning intervention.

While the Syrian crisis reignited discussions on intervening abroad, this analysis suggests domestic debates may have shifted away from HI's idealistic goals toward pragmatic concerns about its feasibility and acceptability.