ABSTRACT
Foreign interventions may destabilize the international balance of power and threaten world peace. If foreign intervention is permitted on grounds of religious and racial persecution, then the Soviet Union and the United States would be legitimately subject to it. The restriction on foreign intervention imposed by the proposed criterion is therefore stronger than that imposed by Charles Beitz's first condition as he interprets it. As Beitz notes, the probable costs of intervention in terms of stable international relations, threats to peace elsewhere, and the stability of neighboring regimes must be worth the probable moral benefits. In addition to threats against peace and stability, the probable loss of innocent lives must be weighed in the balance in contemplating military intervention or military support for factions, when such support is likely to initiate or prolong civil war.
