Department for Continuing Education's guest lectures

The doctrine of the international community's responsibility to protect the citizens of a country whose government has failed them has strengthened the presumption in favour of international intervention for humanitarian reasons. Sir John Holmes asks: 'When can international intervention be justified and effective?'Since the Rwandan genocide, the development of the doctrine of the international community's 'responsibility to protect' the citizens of a country whose government has failed them has strengthened the presumption in favour of international intervention for humanitarian reasons. At the same time the problems and failures in Iraq and Afghanistan have strengthened the arguments against such intervention. Both sides have seen in the case of Libya, while Syria has left everyone cautious but frustrated. Where does the debate now stand, and in what circumstances can intervention be both in accordance with international law, and successful?Sir John Holmes GCVO, KBE, CMG is the Director of the Ditchley Foun