In the space of just a few months, from March to September 1999, the global community witnessed major interventions in defense of human rights self-determination in Kosovo and East Timor. Although carried out by different coalitions of forces acting under quite different mandates, these two interventions signaled what could well be an increased emphasis on humanitarian intervention by the international community at the seeming expense of the principles of state sovereignty and noninterference in a country's domestic affairs.
In December 1999 in Venice, Italy, the Pugwash Conferences held the first in what will be a series of meetings of the Pugwash Study Group on Intervention, Sovereignty, and International Security. This new endeavor stems in part from the lively discussions generated during a Pugwash workshop in Spain in July 1999 on the interrelated issues of NATO's intervention in Kosovo, the West's relations with Russia, and the prospect of future military interventions by the international community (for a report on the workshop in Spain, see the November 1999 Pugwash Newsletter or the project report on the Pugwash website). Given the complexity of the issues discussed in Spain, George Rathjens (secretary general of Pugwash) was convinced of the need for more in-depth analysis by Pugwash of the important and continuing tensions on issues relating to intervention and sovereignty. In particular, it was thought that Pugwash could draw upon its international network of policy specialists and scientists to convene a series of meetings with the aim of bridging, where possible, the very real differences that exist among nations and regions regarding international intervention to deal with cases of widespread humanitarian abuse and failed states.
To help plan the work of the study group, Rathjens and the US Pugwash Committee convened a meeting at the House of the Academy in October 1999. Participants at this meeting included Carl Kaysen, chair of the Academy's Committee on International Security Studies (CISS); Robert McNamara (former president, World Bank, and former US secretary of defense); Peter Galbraith (former US ambassador to Bosnia); Gen. William Nash (former commander of US forces in Bosnia); Owen Harries (National Interest); Paul Doty (Harvard University); and Steven Miller, cochair of US Pugwash. The group discussed the pros and cons of seeing the Kosovo intervention as a precedent for future military interventions by the international community, and the need especially for a group like Pugwash to seek common ground among sharply divergent international attitudes on the legitimacy and feasibility of humanitarian interventions.
Pugwash then convened the first meeting of the international Study Group on Intervention, Sovereignty, and International Security. A total of 23 participants from eleven countries took part in the two-and-a-half-day workshop, which was held at the Istituto Ciliota in Venice from December 9 to 11, 1999. Taking part in the meeting were Mr. Kaysen, Mr. Galbraith, and CISS vice chair Robert Legvold. Other participants included Nobel laureate John Polanyi (Canada), Air Commodore Jasjit Singh (India), Gen. Hugh Beach (United Kingdom), Georgi Arbatov (Russia), Col. Hua Liuhu (China), and Claude Bruderlein (United Nations).
At this initial meeting, the study group focused specifically on what could be called "first-order issues'' regarding intervention (e.g., concepts of international law, the UN Charter, the international politics of intervention, and various types of intervention). Subsequent workshops will focus more on the operational issues of intervention and the need for more effective post-conflict reconciliation and reconstruction strategies. A report on the Venice workshop is posted on the Pugwash website and will be published in the June 2000 issue of the Pugwash Newsletter.
It was also decided that a number of the essays prepared for the workshop would be published as Pugwash Occasional Papers. The first issue, published in February 2000 , included essays by Gwyn Prins, Alain Pellet, and Hugh Beach; the second, scheduled for April 2000, will contain pieces by Claude Bruderlein, Timothy Garden, and Taylor Seyboldt. In launching this new publication series (also available on the Pugwash website), Pugwash aims to circulate innovative analysis and policy prescriptions, on such controversial issues as intervention and sovereignty, to as wide an audience as possible of policy makers, media, nongovernmental organizations, and members of the research community.
The next meeting of the Pugwash Study Group on Intervention, Sovereignty, and International Security is scheduled for September 2000 in Como, Italy.