Beyond Good Intentions. The Role of Self-Interest in Humanitarian Interventions. Looking back to the Australian Intervention in East Timor
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32870/mycp.v4i10.476Palabras clave:
intervención humanitaria, interés nacional, toma de decisiones, política exterior, fuentes de influenciaResumen
Humanitarian intervention (HI) became a prominent feature of International Relations (IR) in the aftermath of the Cold War, and it set up the basis of what later developed as the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). From an International Relations perspective, the underlying debate developed around the question of was what provided the humanitarian character of an intervention. In that regard, little attention was paid to the role of self-interest in the decision-making processes leading to such interventions. This paper asks what are the crucial factors that explain when humanitarian emergencies actually lead to humanitarian interventions. It builds upon the frameworks developed by Snyder, Bruck and Sapin (1962), and Rosenau (1966), which categorize five sources of influence in foreign policy decision making —external or global, societal, governmental, individual and role sources— to analyze an emblematic case of hi in the history of international relations, namely, the Australian-led intervention in East Timor. First, the paper looks at the theoretical explanations of HI. Secondly, the debate about the configuration of self-interest is reviewed. Next, the paper identifies the role that different sources played in the process that lead to HI. Finally, the decision making framework is applied to Australia’s intervention in East Timor.Más allá de las buenas intenciones. El papel del interés nacional en las intervenciones humanitarias. Una mirada a la intervención australiana en Timor Oriental.La intervención humanitaria (IH) fue una de las figuras más recurrentes en las relaciones internacionales (RI) después de la Guerra Fría, y sentó las bases para lo que después se denominó la responsabilidad de proteger (R2P). Desde la perspectiva de las RI, el debate se centró en torno a la pregunta sobre ¿qué proveía el carácter humanitario de una intervención? Sin embargo, se prestó poca atención al papel del interés nacional en el proceso de toma de decisiones del cual emanaban dichas intervenciones. En este artículo se investiga qué factores son relevantes para explicar cuándo las emergencias humanitarias detonan intervenciones humanitarias. Se construye un análisis basado en el marco de toma de decisiones desarrollado por Snyder, Bruck y Sapin (1962), y Rosenau (1966), que propone cinco categorías que agrupan las fuentes de influencia que inciden en el proceso de toma de decisiones de la política exterior —externa o global, social, gubernamental, individual y el papel desempeñado por individuos— para analizar un caso de IH emblemático: la intervención liderada por Australia en Timor Oriental.Descargas
Citas
Agreement between the Republic of Indonesia and the Portuguese Republic on the question of East Timor. (5 may, 1999). Accessed June 9 2010, available at http://www.un.int/portugal/acordos.htm
Akehurst, Michael (1984), ‘Humanitarian Intervention’, in Bull, Hedley (ed.), Intervention in World Politics, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 95-118.
Andersson, Andreas (2000), ‘Democracies and UN Peacekeeping Operations, 1990-1996’, International Peacekeeping, 7(2): 1-22.
Aubrey, Jim (1998), Free East Timor: Australia’s culpability in East Timor Genocide, Sidney: Random House Australia.
Aubrey, Jim (2000), ‘Canberra: Jakarta’s Trojan Horse in East Timor’, in Hainsworth, Paul and McCloskey, Stephen (eds.), The East Timor Question: The struggle for independence from Indonesia. London: IB Tauris Pub., 136.
AUS: Howard Interview Transcript. (6 September, 1999) Scoop Australia, Independent News, available at http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AU9909/S00005.htm
AUS: Howard on East Timor. (29 September, 1999) Scoop Australia, Independent News, accessed 9 June 2010, available at http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AU9909/S00063.htm
Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade #67 (2000), Australia and the Indonesian incorporation of Portuguese Timor: 1974-1976, Carlton: Melbourne University Press.
Ball, Desmond J. (2001), ‘Silent Witness: Australian Intelligence and East Timor’, Pacific Review, 114 (1): 35-62.
Bellamy, Alex J. (2004), ‘Motives, outcomes, intent and the legitimacy of humanitarian intervention’, Journal of Military Ethics, 3(3): 216-232.
Brenchley, Fred (1999), ‘The Howard Defense Doctrine’, The Bulletin, 28 September.
Bull, Hedley and Watson, Adam (1984), The expansion of international society, New York: Oxford University Press.
Chinkin, C. (1995), ‘Australia and East Timor in international law’, in CIIR and IPJET (ed.), International Law and the Question of East Timor, London: CIIR/IPJET.
Clarke, Gregory (1983), ‘Vietnam, China and the foreign affairs debate in Australia: A personal account’, in P. King (ed.), Australia’s Vietnam, North Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Dunn, James (1995), ‘The Timor Affair in International Perspective’, in Cary, P. and Bentley, G. (eds.), East Timor at the Crossroads: The Forging of a Nation, London: Cassell.
East Timor bites the bullet (1999), The Guardian Weekly, September 28, available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1999/aug/28/indonesia.easttimor1
Garrett, Stephen (1999), Doing good and doing well: An examination of Humanitarian intervention, Westport, CT: Praeger.
George, Alexander (1960), ‘The Operational Code: A Neglected Approach to the Study of Political Leaders and Decision-Making’, International Studies Quarterly 13(2): 190-221.
Ghali, Boutros Boutros (1993), ‘UN Peace-Keeping in a New Era: A New Chance for Peace’, World Today, 49(4): 66-69, Royal Institute of International Affairs.
Gray, Joanna (1999), ‘Washington supports UN negotiations”, Australian Financial Review, 14 January.
Gunn, Geoffrey C. (1997), East Timor and the United Nations. The case for intervention, The Red Sea Press.
Hastings, P. (1974), ‘Timor’, Sydney Morning Herald, 16 September, pp. 126-127.
Head, M. (2000), ‘East Timor and Australia’s oily politics’, World Socialist Web Site, available at http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/mar2000/timo-m08.shtml
Hoffman, Stanley (1995), ‘The crisis of Liberal Internationalism’, Foreign Policy, No. 98: 159-177.
Hoffman, Stanley (1996), The Ethics and Politics of Humanitarian Intervention, Notre Dame, in: University of Notre Dame Press.
Holzgrefe, J. L. (2003), ‘The Humanitarian Intervention Debate’, in Holzgrefe, J.L. and Keohane, Robert O. (eds.), Humanitarian Intervention: Ethical, Legal and Political Dilemmas, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Howard pushed me on E Timor referendum: Habibie (2008), ABC News, available at http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/11/16/2420843.htm
Hungtinton, Sammuel (1997). ‘The Erosion of American National Interests’, Foreign Affairs, 76(5): 28-49.
IASC, Inter-Agency Standing Committee, 10th meeting, December 1994. International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) (2001), The Responsibility to Protect. Report of the
International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, Ottawa, Canada: International Development Research Centre.
Ishizuka, K. (2004), ‘Australia’s Policy Towards East Timor: Australia as Regional Hegemon?’, UNU-CRIS Occasional Papers, available from: United Nations University, Department of International Business Management, University of Kyoei, available at: http://www.cris.unu.edu/fileadmin/workingpapers/katsumi%20ishizuka%20occ%20paper.pdf
Jervis, Robert (1976), Perception and Misperception in International Politics, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Keesing’s Records of World Events (1999a), 45(3): 42496, available http://www.keesings.com
Keesing’s Records of World Events (1999b), 45(3): 42834, available at http://www.keesings.com
Kennan, George (1954), Realities of American Foreign Policy, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Leaver, Richard (2001), ‘Introduction: Australia, East Timor and Indonesia’, The Pacific Review, 14(12): 1-14.
Maley, William (2000), ‘The UN and East Timor’, Pacific Review 12(1): 63-76.
Mayall, James (1996), The new interventionism 1991-1994, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McCrum, R. (1998), ‘Extra extra: Suharto should rot in hell tormented by the souls of East Timor’, The Observer News, 24 May, p. 28.
McDougall, Derek (2002), ‘Australian Peacekeeping role in the Post-Cold War Era’, Contemporary Southeast Asia, 24(3): 590-608.
McDougall, Derek and Kingsley, Edney (2007), ‘Howard’s way? Public opinion as an influence on Australia’s engagement with Asia’, Paper presented at the annual conference of the Australasian Political Studies Association, Monash University, Melbourne.
Morgenthau, Hans (1954), Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace, New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Murphy, Sean D. (1996), Humanitarian Intervention: The United Nations in an Evolving World Order, Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Parekh, Bhiku (1997), ‘Rethinking Humanitarian Intervention’, International Political Science Review 18(1): 55-74.
Pilger, John (1994), Distant Voices, New York: Arla Press.
Roberts, Adams (1993), ‘The UN and International Security’, Survival, 35(2), summer.
Rosenau, James (1966), Domestic Sources of Foreign Policy, New York, NY: The Free Press.
Rosenau, James (1980), The Scientific Study of Foreign Policy, London: F. Pinter.
Roskin, Michael G. (1994), National interest: From abstraction to strategy, Carlisle: Strategic Studies Institute.
Russett, Bruce and Oneal, John R. (2001), Triangulating Peace: Democracy, Interdependence, and International Organizations, New York and London: W. W Norton and Company.
Shaw, Martin (2000), ‘Media and Public Sphere without Borders? News coverage and Power from Kurdistan to Kosovo?’, in Nacos, B. and Shaphiro, R. (ed.), Decision-making in a Glass House, Rowman and Littlefield Pub.
Snyder, Richard C., Bruck, H. W., & Sapin, B. (1962), Foreign Policy Decision Making. An Approach to the study of International Politics, Glencoe, IL: The Free Press of Glencoe.
Taylor, J. G. (2003), ‘Encirclement and Annihilation. The Indonesian Occupation of East Timor’, The Spectre of Genocide. Mass Murder in Historical perspective, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Teson, Fernando R. (1997), Humanitarian Intervention: An Inquiry into Law and Morality, Irvington, NY: Transnational Publishers.
Thompson, G. (2007), ‘Howard letter helped bring about E Timor independence poll’, ABCNews, available at http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/02/19/1851623.htm
United Nations (1971), ‘S/PVpv.1606’, United Nations Document, p. 86.
Waltz, Kenneth (1979), Man, the State and War: A Theoretical Analysis, New York: Columbia University Press.
Wheeler, Nicholas (2000), Saving Strangers: Humanitarian Intervention in International Society, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wheeler, Nicholas and Dunne, Tim (2001), ‘East Timor and the New Humanitarian Intervention’, International Affairs, 77(4): 805-827.
Wittkopf, Eugene R., Kegley, Charles W. Jr., and James, M. S. (2003), American Foreign Policy: Pattern and Process, Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth.
Descargas
Publicado
Cómo citar
Número
Sección
Licencia
Política de acceso abierto
Esta revista proporciona un acceso abierto a su contenido, fiel al principio de que ofrecer al público un acceso libre a las investigaciones ayuda a un mayor intercambio global del conocimiento.
MyCP se publica bajo la licencia de Creative Commons Reconocimiento-No Comercial CC BY-NC
Los contenidos serán publicados en versión PDF y XML.
Los autores(as) que publiquen en México y la Cuenca del Pacífico aceptan las siguientes condiciones:
De acuerdo con la legislación de derechos de autor, México y la Cuenca del Pacífico reconoce y respeta el derecho moral de los autores(as), así como la titularidad del derecho patrimonial, mismo que será cedido a la Universidad de Guadalajara para su difusión en acceso abierto.
México y la Cuenca del Pacífico no realiza cargos a los autores(as) por enviar y procesar artículos para su publicación.
Los autores(as) pueden realizar otros acuerdos contractuales independientes y adicionales para la distribución no exclusiva de la versión del artículo publicado en México y la Cuenca del Pacífico (por ejemplo, incluirlo en un repositorio institucional o darlo a conocer en otros medios en papel o electrónicos) siempre que indique clara y explícitamente que el trabajo se publicó por primera vez en México y la Cuenca del Pacífico.
Una vez que se acepte el artículo para su publicación los autores(as) deben remitir el formato de carta-cesión de derechos de la publicación debidamente requisitado y firmado por los autores(as). Este formato debe ser remitido en archivo PDF paralelamente con la versión final del artículo al correo: mexicoylacuenca@gmail.com.
Los lectores/usuarios de México y la Cuenca del Pacífico pueden acceder directamente al contenido de manera libre y gratuita en todo momento, incluyendo cuando un nuevo número es colocado en la plataforma. Se permite al lector/usuario citar, compartir (electrónicamente y de manera física), imprimir y distribuir el material siempre que se indique de manera clara y explícitamente que el trabajo se publicó por primera vez en México y la Cuenca del Pacífico. Es necesario citar de manera correcta el trabajo y no debe de ser utilizado con fines comerciales.
