Page 89 - Contemporary Political Sociology Globalization Politics and Power

Politics in a Small World 75

own government (Habermas, 1999, 2006 : 85 – 7). On the other hand, war
on Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein and achieve “ regime change ” was

neither morally nor legally justified (Habermas and Derrida, 2005 ). What
makes the difference is that, in Kosovo, human rights violations were
actually ongoing, so that there was a chance of stopping them, and the
liberal - democratic states involved in the bombing and invasion of the
former Yugoslavia had acceptable human rights records. In the case of
war in Iraq in 2003, on the other hand, the US acted much more unilater-
ally, opposed by a number of previously close allies, justifying the decision
to invade on very dubious grounds, and putting together a “ coalition of
the willing ” that included states which themselves had poor human rights
records (Habermas, 2006 : 85 – 7). What is necessary, then, according to
Habermas, is the development of cosmopolitan law out of international
law involving deliberation on the facts and principles justifying humani-
tarian intervention on a case - by - case basis. In this way, there is the pos-
sibility of building a world organization in which states bind themselves
to respect limitations in terms of respecting individual ’ s rights, or face
the legitimate enforcement of cosmopolitan law by military or (where
criminal prosecution of a particular leader is the object) police force
(Habermas, 2006 ).
On the other hand, for those who see global governance, and especially
the justifi cation of any kind of humanitarian intervention, as inherently
imperialist, however subtle the arguments for cosmopolitanism may be,
they are at best deluded and na ï ve, and at worst cynically motivated
legitimations of force for personal gain. The traditional version of this
argument in political sociology is Marxist, and it is put forward clearly
and forcibly by David Harvey (2003) . Harvey argues that capitalism
requires imperialism, and so - called “ humanitarian interventions ” are

actually geo - political conflicts led by the US to secure its long - term inter-
ests. In particular, the Iraq war was intended to bring about regime change
to give the US a foothold in the Middle East which would enable it to
control the fl ow of oil on which the global economy depends. According
to Harvey, capitalist imperialism is always faltering and inconsistent
because it involves two, often contradictory, logics: that of the state,
which concerns regulation backed up with the threat of coercion and
which is therefore necessarily concerned with territory and the limits of
military and legal reach; and that of capitalist accumulation which involves
exploiting uneven global development in order to maximize returns on
investments by keeping the costs of raw materials and labor low. In
Harvey ’ s view, changes in international law that cosmopolitans see as
progressive are no more than a cover for US imperialism, which combines