“Do no harm” unmet in rush to war — Asli Ü Bâli

Excerpting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

International law, international relations and Middle East expert Professor Asli Ü Bâli spoke today with Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman on the West-Libya situation. 

This is some of what Bali had to say about nonviolent alternatives never posed or attempted by Western powers bent on war.

The choice pushed by the U.S., France and the UK — “to do nothing or to engage in this kind of an extensive use of force (with a relatively open-ended authorization through the UN Security Council) — is a false framing,” she said.

The course untried: nonviolence, “Do no Harm.” Vigorous political engagement and negotiation-negotiation-negotiation — presumably, though she didn't say this, not via CNN-live, Good Morning America, or The View

“You seek to negotiate a ceasefire,” Bali said, “you seek to negotiate terms on which UN peacekeepers can come in and produce a buffer. Then you create a political framework for negotiation between opposition forces and the regime in Libya in order to initiate a peaceful transition.

“The idea [is to] explore alternatives that make it possible to end the killing of civilians immediately and do no additional harm to civilians. I think that’s really the key for any intervention: does it meet the test of ‘do no harm.’”

Two or three days before the Security Council resolutions, there was indication that both the African Union and the Arab League were very concerned about the situation and, desirous that something be done, might have provided negotiation and peacekeeping support — something, again, that would focus on ending the killing of civilians.

There were alternatives available prior to both the first UNSC decision to engage in the International Criminal Court referral and the second UNSC resolution to authorize use of force, Bali noted.

There were better alternatives — “particularly if the goal is to ‘end the killing of civilians,’ which I think should be the overwhelming goal of attempted intervention in any form.”

Failure to seriously engage or debate these alternatives, she concluded in clear understatement, “is problematic.”

Indeed.

Sources and notes

“Debating Intervention: Is U.S.-Led Military Action the Best Solution to Libya Crisis,” March 23, 2011,

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/23/debating_intervention_is_us_led_military

Professor Asli Ü Bâli is Acting Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law where teaches Public International Law, International Human Rights and a seminar on the Laws of War. 

Bâli’s research interests focus on public international law generally, including the intersection of international law and international relations, as well as issues of non-proliferation, human rights and humanitarian law.  She also has a strong interest in the comparative law of the Middle East. Recent work includes The Legality-Legitimacy Debate in the Context of Nonproliferation (forthcoming, 2010, Oxford University Press); American Overreach: Strategic Interests and Millennial Ambitions in the Middle East, published in Geopolitics Vol. 15, Issue 2 (2010); and From Subjects to Citizens? The Shifting Paradigm of Electoral Authoritarianism in the Middle East, published in Middle East Law and Governance (2009).

Professor Asli Ü Bâli’s  additional credentials: B.A., Williams College, 1993, M.Phil., Cambridge University, Emmanuel College, 1995, M.A., Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, 1999, J.D., Yale, 1999, Ph.D., Princeton University, UCLA Law faculty since 2008; before joining the UCLA faculty, she was the Irving S. Ribicoff Fellow in Law and Coordinator of the Middle East Legal Forum at Yale Law School. She has written and commented extensively on the question of international intervention in Libya.

http://www.law.ucla.edu/faculty/all-faculty-profiles/professors/Pages/asli-%C3%9C-b%C3%A2li.aspx

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