Over the last five decades international legal literature has paid little attention to post-conflict situations and the ways in which the intervening power contributes to the restoration of public order and civil society. Can Might Make Rights? Building the Rule of Law after Military Interventions goes far in filling that lacuna. It is neither a manual nor a primer on the ways and means for fixing broken societies after civil conflicts. Rather, the study provides a sensible, carefully conceived assessment of the problems confronting these war-torn societies and weighs the possible legal, cultural, institutional, and political solutions that could facilitate the transition process, upheld by the rule of law. It does so by examining the post-conflict experiences of countries since 1993, drawing lessons from them for effecting norm creation, civil obedience, and political transformation.
The authors provide valuable insights, not only for international lawyers and scholars, but also for policymakers, diplomats, students, and journalists. In doing so, their analysis cannot help but bring to mind former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s admonition to President Bush in the summer of 2002 regarding the prospects for a U.S. invasion into Iraq: “You are going to be the proud owner of 25 million people. You will own all their hopes, aspirations, and problems. You'll own it all.” Secretary Powell called this “the Pottery Barn rule: You break it, you own it.” In its lucid, coherent analysis, this study explains what attitudes, goals, and policies are necessary for the intervening state to fix that broken society. |
