Critical Review of IR Theories on Why does the international community not intervene in the humanitarian crisis in Syria?

This document provides a critical review of IR theories on why the international community does not intervene in the humanitarian crisis in Syria. It explores the responses towards the crisis through the application of realism and liberalism theories. The document analyzes the reasons behind the failure of the international community to intervene in the crisis and discusses the benefits and criticisms of these theories. It also applies critical theory to understand the Syrian crisis and emphasizes the need to put people at the center of international politics for effective intervention.

Take Home Exam 1

Critical Review of IR Theories on “Why does the international community not intervene in the
humanitarian crisis in Syria?
Syrian crisis demonstrated the failure of international community in protecting and
assisting the large civilians, who are bereaved, impoverished, brutalised, injured and being killed
due to conflict (Eppert, 2019). The conflation over time of humanitarian and political objectives,
after the end of cold war. To explore the responses towards humanitarian crisis, a number of IR
theories like realism and liberalism can be applied. Through the application of such theories, it
can be analysed if the response of states are really changed towards Syrian Crisis. As per the
neoclassical realism theory, it has been analysed the power-seeking nature of human creates a
condition where states struggle to get power over other states (Forsyth, 2018). In this regard,
politics is considered as the main struggle for power over others, which includes the modes to
acquire, maintain and demonstrate the process of taking political actions. In this regard, to
preserve interests of international politics which are mostly concerned on national interest, like
security and wealth, intervention considered as the best option. Therefore, the reason which
demonstrates the failure of international community for not intervening in the humanitarian crisis
in Syria, is personal interest of states to gain more power within international politics. In contrast
with this neoclassical realism theory, liberalism theory emphasizes more on protection of
human rights (A Theoretical Assessment of Humanitarian Intervention and R2P, 2013). It argues
that every person has fundamental rights to liberty to do whatever for own protection, unless
their preservation not become threatened for others. In this regard, supporting this argument,
liberals states that humanitarian intervention's validity is taken as contemporary internationalism.
Liberalism depends on the ethical contention that guaranteeing the privilege of a distinct
individual to life, freedom and property is the most significant standard of government.
Subsequently, nonconformists accentuate the prosperity of the person as the key structure square
of a simply political framework (Zanotti, 2018). Along with this, through liberals point of view,
it has also been argued that military intervention can be taken as a means for protecting civilians
from violation of human rights, such as brutalised, bereaved, genocide as well as criminal
activities against humanity. However, these types of intervention must not be undertaken as
unilaterally, but instead of multilaterally with UN Security Council's authorization (Viotti and
Kauppi, 2019). The reason behind this is that liberal internationalists mainly believe
multilateralism mostly prevents the great powers instead of humanitarian objectives from
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pursuing national interests in intervention (Hasian Jr, 2019). In this regard, a political framework
described by unchecked control, for example, a government or a tyranny, can't ensure the life and
freedom of its residents.
The main presumption of authenticity is that the country state (normally contracted to
'state') is the standard entertainer in worldwide relations. Different bodies exist, for example,
people and associations, however their capacity is constrained. Second, the state is a unitary
entertainer (Niemann, 2018). National interests, particularly in the midst of war, lead the state to
talk and act with one voice. Third, chiefs are sound entertainers as in levelheaded basic
leadership prompts the quest for the national intrigue. Here, taking activities that would make
your state frail or helpless would not be normal. Authenticity recommends that all heads,
regardless of what their political influence, perceive this as they endeavor to deal with their
state's undertakings so as to make due in an aggressive domain (Park, 2015). As opposed to all
the more hopefully disapproved of romantics who anticipated that global pressures should be
settled through open arrangements set apart by generosity, Morgenthau set out a methodology
that underscored control over profound quality. Without a doubt, ethical quality was depicted as
something that ought to be maintained a strategic distance from in policymaking (Van Hear,
Bakewell and Long, 2018). In Morgenthau's record, each political activity is coordinated towards
continuing, expanding or showing power. The reasoning is that arrangements dependent on
profound quality or optimism can prompt shortcoming – and potentially the pulverization or
mastery of a state by a contender. In this sense seeking after the national intrigue is 'irreverent' –
implying that it isn't dependent upon estimations of profound quality (Forsyth, 2018).
Apart from all these benefits of Liberalism and Realism Theory, there are also some
criticisms of these theories which are provided as under:
In spite of the fact that this procedure has been assessed in both positive and negative
terms, the person's expanding separation from pre-given social structures has come to be
comprehended as a deciding component of our age, even to the point of proclaiming another
social age (Zanotti, 2018). The socio-basic advancements which are the target reason for the
changed idea of experience have meanwhile been around characterized by humanism: taken all
in all, the social freedom from conventional job desires, the monetarily adapted extension of
individual alternatives for activity, lastly the social disintegration of social milieus which made a
feeling of network, have the impact of giving the individual the capacity to show an ever more
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prominent proportion of independent accomplishment and along these lines enlarge the level of
individualization (Viotti and Kauppi, 2019).
In theory, "post-innovation" which emerged from a scrutinize of reason was the principal
response to these changed social conditions (Eppert, 2019). This methodology comprehends the
particular procedure of the quickened pluralization of individual life-directions to be a
consequence of the complete defeating of universalistic good standards; and, in a certifiable
mode, announces this to be the freedom of awareness from false "all inclusive statements"
(Eppert, 2019). In the interim, nonetheless, the new circumstance of experience has likewise
been reflected in an especially increasingly significant structure — progressively significant on
the grounds that it is thoughtfully enlightening and hypothetically clarifying — by a discussion
which has so far followed generally in the United States and which spotlights on the
establishments of political morals overall. It has also been analysed which different creators right
now level at the atomistic premises of the radicalism spoke to most importantly in crafted by
John Rawls (Forsyth, 2018). Here, a consciousness of the developing individualization of our
general public appears as an expanded consideration paid to the intersubjective states of human
socialization. The philosophical addressing of the liberal custom goes inseparably with
sociological examinations which endeavor to exhibit that the disintegration of significant worth
networks dependent on convention offers ascend to expand enduring among subjects attributable
to a nonattendance of social contact (Hasian Jr, 2019). The conversion of philosophical and
sociological scrutinizes of radicalism yields an incredible hypothetical current which has then
come to be named "communitarians."
It would from the outset appear to be conceivable to decrease the purpose of conflict in the
discussion between the dissidents and the purported "communitarians" to the topic of the
regulating need concurred either to the perfect of equivalent rights or to the vision of fruitful
networks. The liberal position, obliged all things considered to the custom of contractarian
hypothesis, respects the extension of legitimately ensured freedoms as the key point on which
political morals must center, and this is a point, by chance, which must be supported in normal
terms (Niemann, 2018). On the other hand, the communitarian position, which as far as it matters
for its is bound to the Classical Greek teaching of the polis, or Hegel's thought of moral life,
advocates that every single effective type of political concurrence rely upon the nearness of
ordinarily shared qualities. As it were, though for dissidents the possibility of most extreme,
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similarly dispersed rights fills in as the abrogating standard of political equity, the possibility of
socially-restricting worth directions capacities among the communitarians as the conclusive
standardizing foundation for making a decision about social orders (Park, 2015).
In this regard, applying the Critical theory on Syrian Crisis, it has been analysed that
increasing number of large civilians of Syria to escape form war, they have tried to safely reach
the peaceful locations like Europe. But this crisis has been affected the national communities and
Europe in vast manner (Zanotti, 2018). As per this theory, after the Second World War, history
of humanity has been considered as the history of migration, where number of people have been
displaced from their native places. Through critical perspective, it has further been analysed that
security claims of civilians who are running from war-torn nations, constitutes as the
cosmopolitan responsibility for humankind (Viotti and Kauppi, 2019). Critical theorists, as
compared with other approaches, mainly conduct deep analysis for understanding why civilians
have to leave their homes, to explore the reason behind why international communities not
intervene the humanitarian crisis. This would entail the direct reasons about war in Syria and
elsewhere, including the global structures of power as well as harm. Recognising in this regard,
that there are many strands of thought exists within critical theory, which has narrowed the
approach for introducing the advance emancipation, within the conduct of global affairs.
Therefore, from a critical perspective, it has been analysed that it is people not the states that are
needed to be put at the centre of international or national politics, for intervening the Syrian
Crisis. In addition to this, political arrangements also need to be critiques or judged, as per their
capacity for advancing the emancipation as well as broadening the moral boundaries (Van Hear,
Bakewell and Long, 2018). Along with this, critical theory also assumes through active role for
betterment of human affairs, modernity and identification of some political alternatives can be
inherent, for protecting the Syrians and other refugees from result of political conflicts.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Eppert, K., 2019. UN Intervention Practices in Iraq: A Discursive Approach to International
Interventions. Routledge.
Forsyth, T. ed., 2018. Encyclopedia of international development. Routledge.
Hasian Jr, M., 2019. Communicating during Humanitarian Medical Crises: The Consequences
of Silence or “Témoignage”. Rowman & Littlefield.
Niemann, H., 2018. The Justification of Responsibility in the UN Security Council: Practices of
Normative Ordering in International Relations. Routledge.
Park, J., 2015. Europe’s migration crisis. New York: Council of Foreign Relations, pp.311-325.
Van Hear, N., Bakewell, O. and Long, K., 2018. Push-pull plus: reconsidering the drivers of
migration. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. 44(6). pp.927-944.
Viotti, P. R. and Kauppi, M. V., 2019. International relations theory. Rowman & Littlefield
Publishers.
Zanotti, L., 2018. Ontological Entanglements, Agency and Ethics in International Relations:
Exploring the Crossroads. Routledge.
Online
A Theoretical Assessment of Humanitarian Intervention and R2P. 2013. [Online] Available
Through: <https://www.e-ir.info/2013/01/16/from-kosovo-to-libya-theoretical-
assessment-of-humanitarian-intervention-and-the-responsibility-to-protect/>.
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