The Prevention Principle

By Daniel Shapiro and Adam Kinon

Published by Oxford University Press in the Journal of International Dispute Settlement. Click here to see the article.

When should the United Nations, the United States or the European Union intervene in foreign conflicts? Should they intervene at all or would another entity be in a better position to do so? These are some of the underlying questions of this article, in which the authors discuss concrete ways to prevent destructive conflicts, typically international armed conflicts. They put forward a pragmatic framework, called the Prevention Principle, to recognize and prevent destructive conflict at the earliest possible time at the lowest legitimate level. The authors set out the nature of destructive conflicts, explain how early intervention should occur, and propose a model to identify the most appropriate and effective intervener.