Norm Contestation: Insights into Non-Conformity with Armed Conflict Norms

117 Pages·2018·1.517 MB·English

by  Betcy Jose (auth.)

SPRINGER BRIEFS IN POLITICAL SCIENCE
Betcy Jose
Norm
Contestation
Insights into Non-
Conformity with
Armed Confl ict
Norms
123
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Betcy Jose
Norm Contestation
Insights into Non-Conformity with Armed
Conflict Norms
Betcy Jose
Department of Political Science
University of Colorado Denver
Denver, CO, USA
ISSN 2191-5466 ISSN 2191-5474 (electronic)
SpringerBriefs in Political Science
ISBN 978-3-319-69322-4 ISBN 978-3-319-69323-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69323-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017958817
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To Vega, Samara, and Raya
Who remind me of hope in the world
when I find myself enveloped by its despair
Acknowledgments
My interest in the plight of civilians in armed conflict emanated from my efforts to
understand the 1994 Rwandan genocide as it unfolded. While researching this and
other genocides, I quickly discovered the widespread nature of atrocities committed
against civilians, particularly during armed conflict. I also noticed that many of the
actors who were accused of violating legally mandated civilian protections claimed
to embrace those very protections. It seemed to me a puzzling paradox. This book
aims to shed some light on this puzzle.
There were many people, institutions, and organizations that helped me along
my search for answers. I am most thankful to Charli Carpenter for her generosity of
time and expertise, to Louis Picard for his calmness and perspective, to Jordan Paust
for helping me understand the nuances of international humanitarian law, to Taylor
Seybolt who helped me sharpen my arguments and inspired new directions for
research, and to Paul Nelson who consistently supported my efforts to be both a
rigorous and ethical researcher.
I am also grateful to Alexander Downes, Janne Kleffner, Cian O’Driscoll,
Stephanie Carvin, Christianna Nichols Leahy, Daryl Bockett, Nivien Saleh, Ravi
Srinivas, Hans Stockton, Sigrid Streit, Wendy Lampart, Kristina Thomas, and
Malliga Och for their invaluable feedback and support. I am particularly grateful to
Lisa Hultman who organized seminars for me to talk about this research at Uppsala
University and the Swedish National Defense College. I also want to thank Peter
Wallensteen for generously providing me office space and other needed resources
while I was visiting the Peace and Conflict Department at Uppsala University. I also
have to thank the German Institute for Global and Area studies for its enormously
useful support as I wrote this book. Christoph Stefes generously offered his time,
expertise, good cheer, and support which were instrumental in completing this book.
I would also like to convey my gratitude to the respondents who participated in
this study. I am deeply appreciative of their willingness to set aside time in order to
help me gather data, even when it may have been emotionally difficult. I offer thanks
to the refugees, the delegates of the International Committee for the Red Cross, and
the various legal experts with whom I spoke. I am also thankful to the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Botswana and the University of
vii
viii Acknowledgments
Botswana for their assistance with the logistical planning for one set of interviews
and their welcoming hospitality. I am especially thankful to Sharif Olani, Vasco K.
Simamezi, Changu Moyo, the Seleke family, Victoria Palm, and Shadreck Balisi.
The National Science Foundation funded my field research trips to Botswana and
Switzerland. Without its grant, this research project would not be possible. I am
thankful to the NSF for providing me with these opportunities.
The Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of
Pittsburgh offered me a great deal of support via the Dean’s Fellowship and various
departmental grants. The staff at the Qualitative Data Analysis Program was indis-
pensable during the analytical phase of this project, namely Laurel Person, David
Halpern, Elana Barkowitz, and Taichi Nakatani.
I would also like to acknowledge my indebtedness to the Center for International
Studies at the University of St. Thomas and the Department of Political Science at
the University of Colorado Denver. The faculty, staff, and students at both these
marvelous institutions provided a stimulating and familial environment that helped
me push forward.
Finally, I would like to thank my family. I would like to thank my parents who
never wavered in their support of me and always made me feel like I could accom-
plish anything. I thank my sisters Biju and Bindu as well as Gopikiran Thota for
graciously reading drafts, offering perceptive comments, and providing me strength.
Contents
1 Introduction: How Contestation Provides Insight into
Normative Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Materialist and Norm Diffusion Frameworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Norm Contestation Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Case Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Analytical Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
The Civilian Immunity Norm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The Non-intervention Norm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
General Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Civilian Immunity Norm Case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Non-intervention Norm Case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Contributions to the Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Overview of the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Chapter Two: Norm Contestation: A Theoretical Framework . . . . . . . 16
Chapter Three: Contestation in the Civilian Immunity Norm . . . . . . . 16
Chapter Four: Contestation in the Non-intervention Norm . . . . . . . . . 16
Chapter Five: Conclusion: Lessons Drawn from Norm
Contestation’s Insights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Works Cited. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2 Norm Contestation: A Theoretical Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Norms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Logic of Consequences and the Logic of Appropriateness . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Intersubjective Agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Social Norms and Legal Norms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Norm Ambiguity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Norms’ Constitutive Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Materialist Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Norm Diffusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
ix
x Contents
Critiques of Materialist and Mainstream Constructivist Explanations . . . 30
Differentiating Norm Contestation from a Materialist Framework . . . . . 32
Local Context and Norm Contestation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Interpretive Power and Norm Contestation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Different Kinds of Contestation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Predictions of Norm Diffusion, Materialist, and Norm Contestation
Frameworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Works Cited. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3 Contestation in the Civilian Immunity Norm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Civilian Immunity Norm Prior to IHL Codification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Civilian Immunity Norm After IHL Codification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
A Historical Overview of the Norm’s Exceptions: Targetable Civilians . 52
Ambiguity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Materialist Reasons for Norm Violation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Norm Contestation, Logic of Appropriateness, Logic of Practicality,
and Logic of Contestedness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
IHL Experts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Former Belligerents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Threatening Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Lack of Intersubjective Agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Norm Contestation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Works Cited. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4 Contestation in the Non-intervention Norm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Non-intervention Norm in Pre-charter Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Non-intervention Norm in the Charter Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
A Historical Overview of Humanitarian Intervention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Ambiguity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Materialist Reasons for Norm Violation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Norm Contestation, Logic of Appropriateness, Logic of Practicality,
and Logic of Contestedness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Russian Intervention in Crimea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Russian Humanitarian Justifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Lack of Intersubjective Agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Norm Contestation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Works Cited. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97