Transnational Appeals for Humanitarian Intervention in Europe’s Civil – and Imperial – Wars

Bibliographic Data

ID7734144
AuthorsLia Brazil (0000-0002-5793-4336, University of Manchester, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume34
Issue4
Pages1117-1137
Publication date2025-11-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueContemporary European History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0960-7773 • E-ISSN: 1469-2171
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s096077732510088x
OpenAlexW4412692926
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited3

This article examines transnational appeals for humanitarian intervention to the League of Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the aftermath of the First World War, focusing on conflicts in Ireland, Montenegro and the Rif (Morocco). It analyses how participants and international organisations strategically framed these conflicts, often shifting between designations of ‘civil war’ and ‘imperial war’ to solicit or deflect intervention on humanitarian grounds. Despite public expectations placed on the ICRC and League both organisations were reluctant to intervene against imperial powers, prioritising maintaining the international order over investigating insurgents’ claims. Though insurgents appealed through the rhetoric of ‘humanity’, this was a selective category, reinforcing existing racial and religious hierarchies in Europe. By analysing these conflicts together this article demonstrates that ‘civil war’ was not a fixed category but a fluid and contested concept, instrumentally deployed in the dialogue between belligerents, international organisations and imperial powers

Ancient history · Humanitarian intervention · International law · Political science · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · History · International Law and Human Rights · Law · Medicine · Nursing

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