Justifying Violence: Communicative Ethics and the Use of Force in Kosovo

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When is the use of force for humanitarian purposes legitimate The book examines this question through one of the most controversial examples of humanitarian intervention in the post Cold War period: the 1999 NATO intervention in Kosovo. Justifying Violence applies a critical theoretical approach to an interrogation of the communicative practices which underpin claims to legitimacy for the use of force by actors in international politics. Drawing on the theory of communicative ethics, the book develops an innovative conceptual framework which contributes a critical communicative dimension to the question of legitimacy that extends beyond the moral and legal approaches so often applied to the intervention in Kosovo. The empirical application of communicative ethics offers a provocative and nuanced account which contests conventional interpretations of the legitimacy of NATO's intervention. -- .

Reviews

Naomi Head has produced an original and compelling argument that brings practice back to the Critical Theory of Habermas, rebutting claims that it has little to say about contemporary moral and ethical debates. She pushes constructivism beyond the analysis of norms to an examination of how to better engage in communicative ethics and nudges debates about good international citizenship or the Responsibility to Protect toward the importance of procedural legitimacy in decisionsmaking about the use of force. Through an examination of NATO's 'legitimate' but 'illegal' intervention in Kosovo, she reveals the processes of exclusion from dialogue, the lack of policy coherence and the missed opportunities for a peaceful settlement. In response to the continuing sceptism about the role of language at the international level, she shows why legitimacy and justification matter. This excellent book should be required reading not only for scholars but policymakers confronted with life and death decisions about the use of force.
Professor K.M. Fierke, School of International Relations, St. Andrews

Author Bio

Naomi Head is Lecturer in Politics at the University of Glasgow