Assisting Rebels Abroad: The Ethics of Violence at the Limits of the Defensive Paradigm

Finlay, Christopher J

Abstract

In this article, I analyse the theory and practice of interventions in foreign civil wars to assist rebels fighting against violently oppressive government. I argue that the indirect nature of this kind of intervention gives rise to political complications that are either absent from or less obvious in humanitarian interventions aimed chiefly at defending human rights from imminent threats. An adequate theory must therefore accommodate three additional components. First, it requires a theory of indirect warfare accounting for how the ends of the interveners’ added violence relate to those of the rebels’ violence. Second, it requires a theory of indirect political leadership, paying careful attention both to the political status of the rebel leaders vis‐à‐vis the people on whose behalf they fight and to the relationship between those leaders and the interveners. Third, the peculiarities of indirect military intervention mean that the violence it introduces isn’t easily explained purely in terms of defensive goals. An adequate account needs additionally to pay attention to the role of violence in shaping new political movements and institutions. The value of such goals is less easily quantified than those of humanitarian intervention, making it harder to set upper limits on permissible ‘proportionate’ harm.

Citation

Finlay, C. J. (2022). Assisting Rebels Abroad: The Ethics of Violence at the Limits of the Defensive Paradigm. Journal of Applied Philosophy, 39(1), 38-55. https://doi.org/10.1111/japp.12456

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 22, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Nov 17, 2020
• Publication Date: 2022-02
• Deposit Date: Jun 23, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 19, 2020
• Journal: Journal of Applied Philosophy
• Print ISSN: 0264-3758
• Electronic ISSN: 1468-5930
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 39
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 38-55
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/japp.12456
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1299442