ABSTRACT
During the Cold War, UN organizations routinely presented themselves as “apolitical” and “humanitarian” as a signal to states that they understood their place and recognized sovereignty’s canon of noninterference. Beginning in the mid-1980s and accelerating after the end of the Cold War, however, UN organizations became more deeply involved in the domestic affairs of states. The United Nations has increased its activities in the areas of women’s rights and human rights. UN peacekeeping began trying to save “failed states” and help with the difficult transition from civil war to civil peace. And UNHCR became increasingly active in the area of refugee reintegration and erasing the “root causes” of refugee flight. UN organizations that once knew their place in the sovereign system of states and bundled their humanitarianism to the principle of noninterference were now venturing beyond the border’s edge and proclaiming that their standing as humanitarian organizations permitted them to tread on once sacred ground.
