2023/11/13 by Kathrin Bachleitner
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Global Peace and Security Dynamics #Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics #Peacebuilding and International Security
paper · doi:10.1017/s026021052300044x
openalex publication_date 2023/11/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
Abstract This paper is interested in the role and function of memories in United Nations Security Council debates about humanitarian intervention. It posits that historical experiences and their lessons serve as interpretative devices for the abstract international norms and principles under discussion. The paper speaks of ‘international memories’ where the meaning and lessons derived from the past coalesce among a group of states. Empirically, its case study explores how the memories of totalitarianism/fascism and colonialism were employed in United Nations (UN) representatives’ verbal pleas to intervene in Libya and Syria after the Arab Spring. It finds that those who supported or opposed humanitarian intervention held different interpretations of these memories and their lessons. In each case, however, memories provided essential normative guidance to states when it came to implementing the abstract international principles, norms, and rights that underlie humanitarian intervention.