ABSTRACT
International law does provide for intervention in civil conflicts, but again the indicators are not good for North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) claims. For Michael Walzer the most appropriate unit for normative analysis is the political community that underlies the state. From such principles Walzer has drawn together his justification of the international norm of non-intervention, and the community rights of territorial integrity and national sovereignty. However, Kosovo is more accurately viewed as an integral part of a sovereign state, against whose territorial integrity and political independence NATO acted. The morality of Walzer's argument has been extensively criticized concerning whether it goes far enough in sanctioning war. NATO argued that in the light of reports by international organizations testifying to the magnitude of human rights violations, in turn acknowledged by the UN, and as Yugoslavia consistently defied resolutions and decisions of the Security Council, itself crippled by indecision, it was entitled similarly to intervene.
