Humanitarian Interventions and Risk Society

Contributions to an approach to the problem of risk in humanitarian interventions

Abstract

With this article the author proposes to introduce some problematic dimensions of  humanitarian interventions in the context of risk society. There is a paradox of rationality based on two postulates: first, the use of high level risk technology which one wishes that its use is made in a rational way in relation to the objectives one wishes to reach. Second, the irrationality that involves the impossibility to control the system of interactive agents that might cause ecological catastrophes. The author refers to Popper theorem on what concerns the limits of predictability related to the future effects of the use of high level risk military technology. The analysis of the risk structure leads us to two main issues: the effects of techno-ecological risk over its own users; transformation of the risk in an argument against humanitarian intervention. The second part of the article, recovers the issue of the dialogue with military institution and its relationship with the concept of “failed state” in the context of humanitarian intervention.