Abstract
"Humanitarian war is an oxymoron which may have become reality"(Slim, 1996, 1). Slim' s quote describes perfectly our contemporary world where interventions in the name of human security have become a common international concern in global politics. In the 20th century, it is estimated that 262 million people were killed by their own government, a number that justifies the growing tendency to intervene in states in difficulty (Williams, 2008, 423). However, humanitarian intervention raises many debates as to its legality and legitimacy. Different schools of thought oppose each other as to the motives, results and consequences of humanitarian intervention.
This essay will first look at why and how humanitarian intervention has become so predominant in international politics, then it will analyze the idealist "purely" humanitarian perception of interventions and finally, we will conclude by focusing on the pessimist approach which underlines the impossibility of pure altruist interventions.
