IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kqi/journl/2017-1-2-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do Humanitarian Interventions Help Humanity? An Economic Analysis of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ Norm in Intrastate Conflicts

Author

Listed:
  • Vincent Auger

    (Western Illinois University, United States)

  • Yang-Ming Chang

    (Kansas State University, United Staates)

  • Shane Sanders

    (Syracuse University, United States)

Abstract

In this paper, we present a two-stage game of intrastate armed confrontation and third-party humanitarian intervention to examine political, human, and economic implications of the ‘responsibility to protect’ norm for reducing the human cost of conflict. At stage one, a third party optimally determines the provisions of humanitarian intervention resources to a state and its rebel group. These provisions reduce the effectiveness of arms in inflicting casualties and injuries upon members of each combatting party (and affiliated civilians of each party). At stage two, the state and the rebel group decide upon private allocations of armaments in the contest for political dominance. We identify a combatant moral hazard effect associated with humanitarian intervention. However, we find that a completely biased (unbiased) humanitarian intervention unambiguously generates a reduction in the human cost of conflict.

Suggested Citation

  • Vincent Auger & Yang-Ming Chang & Shane Sanders, 2017. "Do Humanitarian Interventions Help Humanity? An Economic Analysis of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ Norm in Intrastate Conflicts," Journal of Development Innovations, KarmaQuest International, vol. 1(2), pages 1-14, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:kqi:journl:2017-1-2-1
    Note: Shane Sanders is the corresponding author.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://karmaquest.org/journal/index.php/ILGDI/article/view/27/22
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shane Sanders & Bhavneet Walia, 2014. "Endogenous Destruction in a Model of Armed Conflict: Implications for Conflict Intensity, Welfare, and Third-Party Intervention," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 16(4), pages 606-619, August.
    2. Amegashie, J. Atsu & Kutsoati, Edward, 2007. "(Non)intervention in intra-state conflicts," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 754-767, September.
    3. Anderton,Charles H. & Carter,John R., 2009. "Principles of Conflict Economics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521698658, December.
    4. Anderton,Charles H. & Carter,John R., 2019. "Principles of Conflict Economics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107184206, January.
    5. Andrew H. Kydd & Scott Straus, 2013. "The Road to Hell? Third‐Party Intervention to Prevent Atrocities," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 57(3), pages 673-684, July.
    6. Jack Hirshleifer, 1989. "Conflict and rent-seeking success functions: Ratio vs. difference models of relative success," Springer Books, in: Roger D. Congleton & Arye L. Hillman & Kai A. Konrad (ed.), 40 Years of Research on Rent Seeking 1, pages 251-262, Springer.
    7. Chang, Yang-Ming & Sanders, Shane & Walia, Bhavneet, 2015. "The costs of conflict: A choice-theoretic, equilibrium analysis," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 62-65.
    8. Durham, Yvonne & Hirshleifer, Jack & Smith, Vernon L., 2008. "The Paradox of Power," Handbook of Experimental Economics Results, in: Charles R. Plott & Vernon L. Smith (ed.), Handbook of Experimental Economics Results, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 16, pages 127-137, Elsevier.
    9. Yang-Ming Chang & Shane Sanders, 2009. "Raising The Cost Of Rebellion: The Role Of Third-Party Intervention In Intrastate Conflict," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 149-169.
    10. Chang, Yang-Ming & Potter, Joel & Sanders, Shane, 2007. "War and peace: Third-party intervention in conflict," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 954-974, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chang, Yang-Ming & Sanders, Shane & Walia, Bhavneet, 2015. "The costs of conflict: A choice-theoretic, equilibrium analysis," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 62-65.
    2. Yang-Ming Chang & Zijun Luo, 2017. "Endogenous Destruction In Conflict: Theory And Extensions," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(1), pages 479-500, January.
    3. Zuleta, Hernando & Villaveces, Marta Juanita & Andonova, Veneta, 2013. "Conflict and negotiation in Colombia: Are pre-donations useful?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 105-117.
    4. Yang-Ming Chang & Manaf Sellak, 2019. "A game-theoretic analysis of international trade and political conflict over external territories," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 179(3), pages 209-228, June.
    5. Dong, Zhiqiang & Zhang, Yongjing, 2016. "A sequential game of endowment effect and natural property rights," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 108-111.
    6. Friedhelm Hentschel, 2024. "Sharing rules in rent-seeking contests with third-party intervention," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 401-414, September.
    7. Friedhelm Hentschel, 2022. "Third-party intervention in secessions," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 65-82, March.
    8. Yang-Ming Chang & Manaf Sellak, 2024. "Conflict and agreement in the collective choice of trade policies: implications for interstate disputes," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 199(1), pages 103-135, April.
    9. Richard Cornes & Roger Hartley & Yuji Tamura, 2019. "Two‐Aggregate Games: Demonstration Using a Production–Appropriation Model," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 121(1), pages 353-378, January.
    10. Kimbrough, Erik O. & Laughren, Kevin & Sheremeta, Roman, 2020. "War and conflict in economics: Theories, applications, and recent trends," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 998-1013.
    11. Timothy Mathews & Shane Sanders, 2019. "Strategic and experimental analyses of conflict and terrorism," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 179(3), pages 169-174, June.
    12. Anderton,Charles H. & Carter,John R., 2009. "Principles of Conflict Economics," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521875578, December.
    13. Tridimas, George, 2011. "The political economy of power-sharing," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 328-342, June.
    14. Richard Cornes & Roger Hartley & Yuji Tamura, 2010. "A New Approach to Solving Production-Appropriation Games with Many Heterogeneous Players," CESifo Working Paper Series 3060, CESifo.
    15. João Ricardo Faria & Andreas Novak & Aniruddha Bagchi & Timothy Mathews, 2020. "The Refugee Game: The Relationship between Individual Security Expenditures and Collective Security," Games, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-13, June.
    16. Chang Yang-Ming & Sanders Shane D., 2009. "Corruption on the Court: The Causes and Social Consequences of Point-Shaving in NCAA Basketball," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 5(1), pages 269-291, May.
    17. Shikha Silwal, 2017. "On peace and development economics," Economics of Peace and Security Journal, EPS Publishing, vol. 12(2), pages 5-9, October.
    18. Michelle R. Garfinkel & Stergios Skaperdas & Constantinos Syropoulos, 2009. "International Trade and Transnational Insecurity: How Comparative Advantage and Power are Jointly Determined," Working Papers 080921, University of California-Irvine, Department of Economics.
    19. Jack Hirshleifer & Michele Boldrin & David K Levine, 2009. "The Slippery Slope Of Concession," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 47(2), pages 197-205, April.
    20. Philip Brookins & Dmitry Ryvkin, 2014. "An experimental study of bidding in contests of incomplete information," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 17(2), pages 245-261, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Civil War; Civil Conflict; Humanitarian Intervention; Third-party Intervention; United Nations; Responsibility to Protect;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D74 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Conflict; Conflict Resolution; Alliances; Revolutions
    • F51 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Conflicts; Negotiations; Sanctions
    • F55 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Institutional Arrangements
    • H56 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - National Security and War

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kqi:journl:2017-1-2-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Bamadev Paudel (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sneeeea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.