ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the body of work developed by scholars and analysts who have probed regularly the complexities of the subject matter in an effort to not only better understand but also to improve the international community's responses to humanitarian crises. It outlines the linkages and tensions among international principles, questions of intervention and local conflicts by tracing historical changes to attitudes about the principle of sovereignty, the norm of nonintervention, and protection of human rights. The book provides the overview from the ground-level of what is at stake and what the international community is confronted with when considering intervention as a response to humanitarian crises. It describes the sources of instability at the domestic and regional levels from the point of view of regionalism and political economics.
