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Abstract

This research applies an anti-colonial framework of analysis to humanitarian interventions to establish questions less prevalent in the dominant Eurocentric discourse and academic work. The practice of humanitarian intervention remains highly critiqued and divisive within academia. It has been broadly critiqued, raising key questions of legitimacy, morality and accountability. This research specifically looks at humanitarian intervention in Somalia, 1992-1995, and Rwanda, 1993-1996, before comparing the conclusions to humanitarian intervention post 2000, in the wake of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ and the ‘War on Terror’. This research establishes a common history of brutal colonial rule, followed by repression under postcolonial leadership, a systematic silencing of the intervention’s targets, and fragmentation of historical events from their contemporary consequences. It highlights questions on the nature of ‘postcolonial’ and coloniality of the international system, fragmentation of histories and knowledge, as well as the ‘othering’ and disposability of targeted states and societies. These questions are explored within the wider framework of coloniality of power and knowledge. The analytical framework used within this research is based upon Sabaratnam (2017), anti-colonial framework established within, ‘Decolonising Intervention, International Statebuilding in Mozambique’ and has taken inspiration from Howell and Richter-Montpetit (2019), ‘Is Securitization Theory Racist?’. It further includes a range of postcolonial academics who have challenged and given alternative approaches to the dominant Eurocentric discourse of history and international relations (Ahmida, 2006, p. 177).

Course: International Development - BA - C28415

Date Deposited: 2021-03-11

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13669.html