Mobilizing the will to intervene : Leadership & action to prevent mass atrocities

Mobilizing the Will to Intervene iii Together, we are struck not by the absence of the will to intervene to prevent genocide, but by the presence of the will not to intervene, a negative thrust evident among the leaders of Canada, the United States, and other democracies when confronting the great mass atrocities of the 20th and 21st centuries. [...] These mass atrocities were surely “contrary to moral law and the spirit and aims of the United Nations,” as the U. N. expressed it in 1946, but “moral law” and “the spirit and aims of the United Nations” carry very little weight in the national interest and partisan political calculations that shape foreign policies in the capitals of the great democracies. [...] Specifically, we seek to persuade the leaders of Canada and the United States to adopt a concept of the national interest that incorporates the notion that preventing genocide and mass atrocities serves the interests of their people and not doing so puts the welfare of their citizens at risk. [...] One of the major outcomes of the W2I study is the finding that when leadership at the top is absent, civil society in Canada and the United States must strongly pressure governments to broaden their concept of “national interests.” Saving the lives of innocent civilians in future Rwandas and Kosovos is vital to saving lives in Canada and the United States. [...] Part IV consists of the appendices, which include the selected bibliography for the case studies, the list of interviewees, biographies of the W2I Project’s Co-Directors and researchers, members of the Research Steering Committee and Academic Consultation Group, as well as a list of acronyms.