İnsani müdahalenin dönüşümü: Karşılaştırmalı bir inceleme, 1945-2020

One of the leading controversies in international relations over the last few decades is the question of "what is to be done when a state is unwilling or unable to stop a humanitarian crisis within its territory?". The concept of humanitarian intervention emerged as a possible solution to this question, and it implies a military intervention by a third-party country or a group of countries, or an international organization in the internal affairs of a country with a group of people suffering from human rights violations with or without target states' consent. It is noteworthy that after the Cold War, there was an increasing willingness amongst academics, states and non-governmental organizations to address humanitarian issues. They began to breach the wall of non-interference and attach less importance to the concept of national sovereignty. On the other side, post-Cold War interventions mainly relied on manpower, and interveners carried out missions beyond providing security. For that reason, many regarded the post-Cold War period as the "golden age" of humanitarian intervention. However, this post-Cold War period paradigm has no longer persisted. A significant transformation occurred in the methods of humanitarian intervention towards the late 1990s and in the state interests regarding intervening in humanitarian crises by the early 2000s. The main research question of this dissertation is how and why the nature of humanitarian intervention has transformed, particularly regarding state interests and intervention methods. To address this question, this research analyzes eleven cases of humanitarian intervention between 1945 and 2020 using a comparative research analysis method, incorporating both qualitative and quantitative research methods. At the end of the analysis, this research concludes two significant transformations in humanitarian intervention regarding intervention methods and state interest. The first transformation concerns the intervention methods, characterized by the replacement of manpower with airpower as the main intervention method and the narrowing in the scope of the interventions. The second transformation is the decline in state interest regarding intervening in humanitarian crises, leading states to adopt a more cautious and reluctant approach.