No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Agonising choices: Tragedy and International Relations – a tragic vision of humanitarian intervention in the Bosnian War
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 April 2020
Abstract
Tragedy is one of the oldest metaphorical lenses of International Relations. The tragic vision of politics, from Thucydides to contemporary realist theorists, lies at the core of classical realism. However, it is striking how rarely the concept of tragedy has been applied to the discourse of humanitarian intervention. This lacuna is a weakness on both the intellectual and political levels, as nowhere are clashes between competing ethical perspectives more glaring. An examination of the concept of tragedy, as conceived from its Greek origins, can illuminate an understanding of the morally contradictory imperatives created by armed intervention. Using the Bosnian War as a case study, Greek classical tragedy provides a framework to grasp the agonising choices and insoluble ethical dilemmas brought about by humanitarian intervention, in contrast to mere narratives of salvation. The argument conveyed in this article seeks to reconcile a tragic vision with the idea of progress and political action. It concludes by suggesting that the fundamental lessons that lie at the heart of tragedy should be associated with another major concept in Greek culture, namely, the Aristotelian idea of phronesis or ‘practical wisdom’.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © British International Studies Association 2020
References
1 Lebow, Richard Ned, The Tragic Vision of Politics: Ethics, Interests and Order (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2003), p. 24CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
2 Bushnell, Rebecca, Tragedy: A Short Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell, 2008), p. 1Google Scholar.
3 Vernant, Jean-Pierre, ‘Tensions and ambiguities in Greek tragedy’, in Vernant, Jean-Pierre and Vidal-Naquet, Pierre (eds), Myth and Tragedy in Ancient Greece (New York: Zone, 1990), pp. 32–3Google Scholar.
4 Aristotle, Poetics, trans. Telford, Kenneth A. (London: University Press of America, 1985), pp. 1452a 10–1452b 10Google Scholar.
5 Erskine, Toni and Lebow, Richard Ned, ‘Understanding tragedy and understanding International Relations’, in Erskine, Toni and Lebow, Richard Ned (eds), Tragedy and International Relations (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), p. 4CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
6 See Doyle, Michael W., Ways of War and Peace: Realism, Liberalism and Socialism (New York: Norton, 1997)Google Scholar.
7 Nussbaum, Martha C., ‘Philosophy and literature’, in Selley, D. (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), p. 25Google Scholar.
8 See, for example, Mearsheimer, John J., The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (New York: Norton, 2001)Google Scholar; Morgenthau, Hans J., Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1985)Google Scholar; Euben, Peter J., Greek Tragedy and Political Theory (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1986)Google Scholar; Euben, Peter J., The Tragedy of Political Theory: The Road Not Taken (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990)Google Scholar.
9 Chris Brown, ‘Tragedy, “tragic choices” and contemporary international political theory’, in Erskine and Lebow (eds), Tragedy and International Relations, pp. 75–85.
10 Mervyn Frost, ‘Tragedy, ethics and International Relations’, in Erskine and Lebow (eds), Tragedy and International Relations, p. 39.
11 See Kaplan, Robert D., Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History (New York: St Martin's Press, 1993)Google Scholar; Campbell, David R., National Deconstruction: Violence, Identity, and Justice in Bosnia (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998)Google Scholar.
12 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, trans. Ross, David (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), VI, p. 1140bGoogle Scholar.
13 Vernant, Jean-Pierre and Vidal-Naquet, Pierre, Oedipe et ses mythes (Paris: Editions complexes, 1988), pp. 1–22Google Scholar.
14 On this point, see Spiegel, Nathan, ‘On Aristotle's definition of tragedy’, Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire, 49:1 (1971), pp. 14–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Critchley, Simon, Tragedy: The Greeks and Us (New York: Pantheon, 2019)Google Scholar.
15 Euben, The Tragedy of Political Theory.
16 Frost, ‘Tragedy, ethics and International Relations’, pp. 27–8.
17 Nussbaum, ‘Philosophy and literature’, pp. 220–22.
18 Frost, ‘Tragedy, ethics and International Relations’, p. 27.
19 Erskine and Lebow, ‘Understanding tragedy and understanding International Relations’, p. 3.
20 Frost, ‘Tragedy, ethics and International Relations’, pp. 21–43.
21 Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations, p. 11.
22 Lebow, The Tragic Vision of Politics, p. 336.
23 Tracy B. Strong, ‘Nietzsche and questions of tragedy, tyranny and International Relations’, in Erskine and Lebow (eds), Tragedy and International Relations, p. 145.
24 Aristotle, Poetics, pp. 1447a–1449b.
25 Ibid., p. 1453a 1–20.
26 Erskine and Lebow, ‘Understanding tragedy and understanding International Relations’, p. 4.
27 Vernant and Vidal-Naquet, Oedipe et ses mythes, pp. 32–3.
28 Euben, Greek Tragedy and Political Theory, p. 29.
29 Erskine and Lebow, ‘Understanding tragedy and understanding International Relations’, p. 8.
30 Poole, Adrian, Tragedy: Shakespeare and the Greek Example (New York: Blackwell, 1987), p. 12Google Scholar.
31 See Euben, Greek Tragedy and Political Theory, pp. 6–9.
32 Nicholas Rengger, ‘Tragedy or scepticism? Defending the anti-Pelagian mind in world politics’, in Erskine and Lebow (eds), Tragedy and International Relations, p. 54.
33 Williams, Bernard, Shame and Necessity (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993), p. 164CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
34 James Mayall, ‘Tragedy, progress and the international order’, in Erskine and Lebow (eds), Tragedy and International Relations, p. 46.
35 Brown, ‘Tragedy, “tragic choices” and contemporary international political theory’, p. 76.
36 Holzgrefe, J. L. and Keohane, Robert O., Humanitarian Intervention: Ethical, Legal and Political Dilemmas (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), p. 18CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
37 See Bass, Gary, Freedom's Battle (New York: Knopf, 2008), pp. 30–6Google Scholar; Wertheim, Stephen, ‘A solution from hell: The United States and the rise of humanitarian intervention, 1991–2003’, Journal of Genocide Research, 12:3–4 (2010), p. 150CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.
38 Holzgrefe and Keohane, Humanitarian Intervention, p. 1.
39 See the United Nations Charter, Article 2 (4), available at: {http://www.un.org/en/charter-united-nations/}.
40 Heinze, Eric A., Waging Humanitarian War: The Ethics, Law, and Politics of Humanitarian Intervention (Albany: SUNY Press, 2009), p. 16Google Scholar.
41 International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, The Responsibility to Protect (Ottawa: International Development Research Centre, 2001)Google Scholar.
42 See UN General Assembly, World Summit Outcome Document (2005), paras 138, 139, available at: {http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/generalassembly/docs/globalcompact/A_RES_60_1.pdf}.
43 Heinze, Waging Humanitarian War, p. 15.
44 Ibid., pp. 15–32.
45 Brown, ‘Tragedy, “tragic choices” and contemporary international political theory’, p. 80.
46 Ibid., p. 84.
47 Beitz, Charles R., Political Theory and International Relations (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
48 Walzer, Michael, ‘Political action: The problem of dirty hands’, Philosophy and Public Affairs, 2:2 (1973), pp. 160–80Google Scholar.
49 Brown, ‘Tragedy, “tragic choices” and contemporary international political theory’, pp. 80–1.
50 Nettelfield, Lara J., ‘Research and repercussions of death tolls: The case of the Bosnian Book of the Dead’, in Andreas, Peter and Greenhill, Kelly M. (eds), Sex, Drugs and Body Counts: The Politics of Numbers in Global Crime and Conflict (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2010), pp. 159–87Google Scholar.
51 See Barnett, Michael, ‘Humanitarianism transformed’, Political Sciences and Politics, 4:3 (2005), pp. 723–40Google Scholar; Razack, Sherene H., Dark Threats and White Knights: The Somalia Affair, Peacekeeping, and the New Imperialism (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004)Google Scholar.
52 Woodward, Susan L., Balkan Tragedy: Chaos and Dissolution After the Cold War (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 1995), p. 11Google Scholar.
53 A detailed account of the war and some of the key interpretations surrounding its unfolding can be found in Woodward, Balkan Tragedy; Campbell, National Deconstruction; and Kaplan, Balkan Ghosts.
54 Crnobrnja, Mihailo, The Yugoslav Drama (London: Tauris, 1994), p. 4Google Scholar.
55 See Glenny, Misha, The Fall of Yugoslavia (London: Penguin, 1996), pp. 188–90Google Scholar.
56 Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannos, II, 7–9 in The Three Theban Plays: Antigone, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, trans. Fagles, Robert (New York: Penguin Books, 1984)Google Scholar.
57 Dawe, D. R., ‘Some reflections on ate and hamartia’, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 72 (1968), pp. 89–123CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Erskine and Lebow, ‘Understanding tragedy and understanding International Relations’, p. 14.
58 Woodward, Balkan Tragedy, p. 148.
59 Ibid.
60 Ibid., p. 149.
61 O'Ballance, Edgar, Civil War in Bosnia, 1992–94 (New York: St Martin Press, 1995), p. xiiCrossRefGoogle Scholar.
62 Brown, ‘Tragedy, “tragic choices” and contemporary international political theory’, p. 83.
63 Young, Kirsten, ‘UNHCR and ICRC in the former Yugoslavia: Bosnia-Herzegovina’, International Review of the Red Cross, 83:843 (2001), p. 802Google Scholar.
64 Woodward, Balkan Tragedy, p. 11.
65 Mills, Kurt, ‘United Nations intervention in refugee crises after the Cold War’, International Politics, 35:4 (1998), p. 406Google Scholar.
66 Nizich, Ivana, War Crimes in Bosnia-Herzegovina (Helsinki: Human Rights Watch, 1992), p. 124Google Scholar.
67 Cited in Young, ‘UNHCR and ICRC in the former Yugoslavia’, p. 796.
68 Silber, Laura and Little, Allan, The Death of Yugoslavia (London: Penguin, 1995), p. 303Google Scholar.
69 Leurdijk, Dick A., The United Nations and NATO in the Former Yugoslavia (The Hague: Netherland Atlantic Commission, 1996), p. 44Google Scholar.
70 Cited in Gordon, Stuart, ‘A recipe for making safe areas unsafe’, in Gordon, Stuart and Toase, Francis (eds), Aspects of Peacekeeping (London: Frank Cass, 2001), p. 217Google Scholar.
71 Honig, Jan W. and Both, Norbert, Srebrenica: Record of a War Crime (London: Penguin, 1996), p. 178Google Scholar.
72 See Dawe, ‘Some reflections on ate and hamartia’, pp. 89–123.
73 Lebow, Richard Ned, A Cultural Theory of International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), p. 99CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
74 Honig and Both, Srebrenica, p. 183.
75 Ibid.
76 Lindsey Hilsum, ‘A village tyrant spells out his dreams for the Serbs’, The Independent (16 June 1996), available at: {https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a-village-tyrant-spells-out-his-dream-for-the-serbs-1337312.html} accessed 12 September 2019.
77 See French, Peter A., The Virtues of Vengeance (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2001)Google Scholar.
78 Ignatieff, Michael, Empire Lite: Nation-Building in Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan (New York: Vintage, 2003), p. 321Google Scholar.
79 See David, Charles-Philippe, ‘Alice in Wonderland meets Frankenstein: Constructivism, realism and peacebuilding in Bosnia’, Contemporary Security Policy, 22:1 (2001), pp. 1–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
80 The ICTY is a body of the UN established by Resolution 827 of the UN Security Council and located in The Hague. Since the Tribunal started its work, it has indicted 161 individuals. See the ICTY website {http://www.icty.org}.
81 United Nations, ‘Report of the Secretary General Pursuant to General Assembly Resolution 53/35: The Fall of Srebrenica’, no. A/53/549 (1999), p. 108.
82 Valentino, Benjamin A., ‘The true cost of humanitarian intervention: The hard truth behind a noble notion’, Foreign Affairs, 90:6 (2011), pp. 61–73Google Scholar.
83 Catherine Lu, ‘Tragedies and International Relations’, Erskine and Lebow (eds), Tragedy and International Relations, pp. 159–60.
84 Cited in Western, Joe, Selling Intervention and War: The Presidency, The Media, and the American Public (Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press, 2005), p. 160Google Scholar.
85 Warren, Lane and Lane, Ann M., ‘The politics of Antigone’, in Euben, Peter (ed.), Greek Tragedy and Political Theory (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), p. 53Google Scholar.
86 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, pp. 1138b ff.
87 Ibid., p. 1140a35.
88 Flyvbjerg, Bent, Making Social Sciences Matter: Why Social Inquiry Fails and How It Can Succeed Again, trans. Samson, Steven (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 4Google Scholar.
89 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, IV, p. 1140b.
90 Aubenque, Pierre, La prudence chez Aristote (Paris: PUF, 1993), p. 63Google Scholar.
91 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, IV, p. 1140b1.
92 Aubenque, La prudence chez Aristote, p. 63.
93 Westberg, Daniel, Right Practical Reason: Aristotle, Action, and Prudence in Aquinas (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994)Google Scholar.
94 Wall, John, ‘Phronesis, poetics and moral creativity’, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 6:3 (2003), p. 317CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
95 Westberg, Right Practical Reason, p. 5.
96 Williams, Shame and Necessity, p. 19.
97 Dunne, Joesph, Back to the Rough Ground: ‘Phronesis’ and ‘Techne’ in Modern Philosophy and in Aristotle (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1993), p. 245Google Scholar.
98 Lebow, ‘Tragedy, politics and political science’, in Erskine and Lebow (eds), Tragedy and International Relations, p. 68.
99 Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, trans. Hammond, Martin (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 65Google Scholar.
100 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, VI, p. 1140b.
101 Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannos, pp. 452–7.
102 This is encapsulated in the notion of ‘universal audience’ by Chaïm Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca as a virtual concept referring to the conscience of ‘all reasonable beings’, namely, the entire set of educated and reasonable people across the broadest human spectrum possible. For Perelman, there are non-written laws on which all reasonable being agree, and the validity of a statement in the realm of human affairs has more to do with what is ‘reasonable’ in any particular case than with truth or logic. Of crucial importance in Perelman's concept of universal audience is the fact that values have no fixed meaning: principles such as ‘equality’, ‘justice’, or ‘dignity’ are necessarily vague and must remain so. See Perelman, Chaïm and Olbrechts-Tyteca, Lucie, The New Rhetoric: A Treatise on Argumentation (London: University of Notre Dame Press, 1971)Google Scholar.
103 Perelman, Chaïm, ‘Can the rights of man be founded?’, in Rosembaum, Alan S. (ed.), The Philosophy of Human Rights: International Perspectives (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1980), p. 47Google Scholar.
104 Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations, p. 11.
105 Garsten, Bryan, Saving Persuasion: A Defense of Rhetoric and Judgement (Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 2006), p. 4CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
106 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, IV, p. 1140; Aubenque, La prudence chez Aristote, p. 63.
107 Benasayag, Miguel and Rey, Angélique del, Éloge du conflit (Paris: La Découverte, 2007), p. 184Google Scholar.
108 Danblon, Emmanuelle, L'homme rhétorique (Paris: Cerf/Humanités, 2013), p. 192Google Scholar.