ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT What is the Zeitgeist of resistance in the present moment-the age of empire? This paper examines key contemporary interventions that invoke international norms to temper and rein in intervention and occupation. Even as they signal dissent, the paper concludes that these interventions turn away from the historical, deny ideological conflict and fail a counter-hegemonic politics. They return to an ahistorical domain of international law and humanist ethics that stands outside time and is blind to that privilege. This is a stance that may contribute to the production of legitimacy for empire, even as it seeks to curb its excesses.
