The Right To Intervention: Codified in Kosovo

Bernard Kouchner is the new United Nations governor of Kosovo. He was formerly the French Minister of Health and, in the government of Francois Mitterand, Undersecretary of State for Humanitarian Action.

A physician, Kouchner was the found of Medicins Sans Frontieres and Medecins Du Monde, two private French organizations that have mounted relief operations in Lebanon, Afghanistan, Yugloslavia and elsewhere.

This commentary, drawn from Kouchner's previous contributions to NPQ on "the right to intervention," is followed by a recent interview with Le Monde.

Pristina - Can we dream of a 21st century where the horrors of the 20th will not be repeated. Where Auschwitz or the mass exterminations that took place in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge and later in Rwanda and Kosovo cannot happen again? The answer is a hopeful yes - if, as part of the emergent world order, a new morality can be codified in the "right to intervention" against abuses of national sovereignty.

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