During the 1990s, international society increasingly recognised that states who abuse their citizens in the most egregious ways ought to lose their sovereign inviolability and be subject to humanitarian intervention. The emergence of this norm has given renewed significance to the debate concerning what it is about humanitarian intervention that makes it legitimate. The most popular view is that it is humanitarian motivations that legitimise intervention. Others insist that humanitarian outcomes are more important that an actor's motivations, pointing for instance (...) to the ousting of the Khmer Rouge by Vietnam. Given the centrality of this debate, this article reinvestigates the ?motives versus outcomes? debate and suggests an alternative reading based on the classic Just War tradition. It argues that an actor's intentions are vital to assessing the legitimacy of an intervention. (shrink)

Aristotle's Politics is one of the most influential texts in the history of political thought, and is essential reading for anyone seriously interested in the ways in which human societies are organized and governed. For this edition Sir Ernest Barker's fine translation has been extensively revised to meet the needs of the modern reader. The introduction and notes examine the historical and philosophical background of the work and discuss its significance for modern political thought.