Time Schedule:
Mary P. Callahan
SIS 495
Seattle Campus
Small-group seminars address current problems in international affairs, each focusing on one specific policy question and producing a joint task force report. Restricted to senior majors in International Studies. Prerequisite: SIS 200; SIS 201; SIS 202; SIS 401.
Class description
Humanitarian Intervention and the Responsibility to Protect
This presidential task force will write a policy paper laying out protocols for humanitarian interventions. In particular, it will evaluate whether the United States should take the lead on, support, or reject the relatively new doctrine called “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P), which holds that is appropriate to undertake all means necessary (including military intervention) against a state that does not protect people at risk in its territory. The task force will develop “lessons learned” from recent cases in which R2P has been invoked, such as Burma and Darfur. Students are expected to have read Gareth Evans, The Responsibility to Protect: Ending Mass Atrocity Crimes Once and for All, and to familiarize themselves with the report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, available online at: http://www.iciss.ca/report-en.asp before the quarter begins. They should also research recent press coverage of the crises in Burma and Darfur, as well as other cases in which R2P is being debated.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
