Forced Migration, Humanitarian Intervention, and Sovereignty

Massive population displacements are not new in world affairs. Yet, the twentieth century has witnessed unprecedented human displacements as a result of tectonic political shifts and world wars. This past century has also seen the evolution of international responses and interventions to protect and assist categories of dislocated persons under multilateral agreements. While a full examination of their impact on population displacements is beyond the scope of this writing, this article seeks to identify significant factors and trends within these responses for further study. Without attempting to detail a comprehensive agenda for addressing the problem of forced displacement, a few basic issues and driving forces are noteworthy in arriving at such an agenda.

Demographic questions have obvious relevance to refugee policy as the world’s population exceeds six billion persons. While the point is trite, population growth means that more people are simply subject to displacement. This is particularly so in Africa, which has experienced recent vast population displacements as well as relatively high rates of population growth. ¹

Certain implications of this global trend are foreseeable. Large sudden movements of people will present serious challenges to the capacities of countries of first arrival, particularly for those countries that are relatively weak and lack sufficient resources. Grave logistical challenges will also be presented to international humanitarian agencies, including the private voluntary organizations, which undertake to meet the basic needs of displaced populations—that is, food, shelter, and medical care. The world has already witnessed such problems in recent years: the Kurds in the mountains of northern Iraq, Rwandans in Goma in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), and most recently Kosovars in Macedonia and northern Albania. The logistical resources of the military were needed to fashion workable humanitarian responses to these situations. Humanitarian groups have been pushed to become more professional, and a premium has been placed on more effective coordination. But the humanitarian system is still likely, on occasion, to require the type of logistical support only the military can provide in order to deal with sudden massive population displacements.

Technological development is also a factor that contributes to the awareness of forced displacement and shapes the prospect of international intervention. The increasingly pervasive nature of the media coverage of humanitarian catastrophes has created new pressures on policymakers as diaspora and political constituencies demand some form of response. Ease of international communications and travel will ensure that media-saturated societies in the West have immediate access to information about such humanitarian disasters. Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) will advocate intervention and policymakers will search for initiatives that respond both to issues of injustice and humanitarian need as well as to domestic political pressures. There will also be interesting new efforts to use technology, such as the efforts in the recent Kosovo emergency to document refugees, trace separated family members, and raise funds for humanitarian relief initiatives. ² However, lack of technological capacity among the institutional actors has so far limited the effects of such innovations.

This article discusses forced displacement as a dimension of complex humanitarian emergencies in the post-Cold War era. Recent events in Iraq, the Great Lakes region of Africa, the Balkans, and East Timor are illustrative. These emergencies have many common elements, including internal ethnic conflicts, systematic human rights violations such as ethnic cleansing, and massive loss of life—predominantly civilians.

After a brief historical review, followed by a theoretical discussion of the nature of sovereignty, the magnitude and characteristics of recent refugee emergencies are discussed. Recent international responses are described and analyzed, including the establishment of safe areas, protected enclaves, refugee protection strategies, asylum arrangements, humanitarian assistance deployments, humanitarian evacuation or relocation, repatriation to home countries, third-country resettlement, and state-building initiatives. Evolving doctrine and practice relating to humanitarian intervention are examined in connection with forced displacements.

This article specifically seeks to identify trends and provide insights into issues of forced population displacements in the post-Cold War era. While further study and examination are indicated, the article endeavors to give content to notions of humanitarian intervention in complex emergencies, and the humane management of forced...