LaSER (previously Dispatch) is a newsletter for all members in the Region and is published three times a year.

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In the February issue, read about the Region's AGM and keynote addresses concerning Women's rights, and branch event reports in the past three months.

Don't miss the UNA-UK Roadshow at the London & SE Region on 15 February 2011.

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Roger Hallam notes the limits of protection in Michael Newman’s latest book.

The UN attempts to persuade sovereign states to collaborate in the interests of their peoples. Throughout the Cold War the principle of sovereign inviolability underpinned the system. But what about situations where a state fails to protect its population? Must outsiders look on helplessly while famine and violence destroy peoples and communities?

Newman charts the development of international thinking on these issues in ways which will stimulate and challenge current debates within the UN – and indeed within UNA. What were the lessons of Rwanda, Kosovo and Timor? Has there been a fundamental change in sentiment towards intervention in crises? What are the implications of the “responsibility to protect” which the UN Security Council adopted in 2006?

Newman’s own view is that intervention
should be driven by enlightened humanitarianism. It should recognise that fundamental human security is endangered not only by overt violence and conflict, but also by policies and practices which undermine the capacity of peoples to thrive. Among these might be the effect of biofuels and agricultural dumping on food markets, the imposition of economic policies inappropriate to local realities and of course climate change which the North has largely inflicted on the South. Humanitarianism should not merely relieve immediate suffering, but should open its eyes to the causes of that suffering, both those originating locally in the society in question and those arising from structures of economic and political power in the wider world. Military intervention – which tends to emphasise only the local factors – should be an option to be exercised extremely sparingly.

Today, Newman thinks, the risk is that the responsibility to protect is being interpreted narrowly to focus on physical security. The challenge is to develop a wider notion of humanitarianism which offers protection from poverty, degradation and disease.

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