ABSTRACT
This chapter raises a number of issues ranging from the supposedly ethnocentric character of civil liberties and individualism to the supposedly unqualified progressive character of privileging identity, roots, and national culture. But it is also concerned with the ways in which human rights and political realism offer different ways of dealing with sovereignty deficits. The meaning of stability has changed. With new transnational terror networks, millions of immigrants, environmental problems, and more, stability is challenged and civil unrest has become part of everyday politics. Intervention tempts the great powers, but also organizations like the United Nations. There is a need for ideals to guide realistic assessments of the given situation. Criteria emerge and this chapter will specify them: Is there an articulated strategy? Is there a demonstrable ethical purpose? Is there domestic and international support? Is there a double standard being employed and—perhaps most important—who benefits?
