Military intervention and humanitarian action trends and issues

An important trend in military doctrine for so-called 'peace support operat ions' has been to place them on a spectrum that includes coercion and enfor cement This paper focuses on British writers of doctrine as those responsib le for driving the debate forward and forging a consensus among leading mil itary powers. Their discourse is combat oriented, a fact reinforced by a tr end towards strategic subcontracting to coalitions of the militarily willin g and able. At the same time, there has been a move to institutionalise the involvement of military forces in relief peace building and development ac tivities. The overall emphasis is on stability and security to facilitate t he delivery of humanitarian relief and to establish the conditions for peac e-building processes. In the case of Bosnia, this involves conditionality a nd economic leverage. Although there is a long-established record of peace- keeping forces engaging in goodwill activities (with mixed results), the cu rrent trends contain contradictions that seem likely to contribute to the w idely perceived erosion of classical humanitarian principles.