Revista de Știinţe Politice şi Relaţii Internaţionale (Sep 2023)

FIINȚA UMANĂ CA VALOARE PENTRU STAT ȘI RELAȚIILE INTERNAȚIONALE

  • Ruxandra Iordache,
  • Henrieta Șerban

Journal volume & issue
Vol. XX, no. 3
pp. 64 – 86

Abstract

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Shouldn’t international relations be about people? Humanism is a philosophy of man, a philosophical tradition for which human values are above anything else; this philosophical, cultural, scientific and artistic current, with deep roots in Greek Antiquity, gains multitudes of ramifications over time, all legitimized by an open conception, with positive connotations, with principles that cannot be questioned, all sustaining the value of human being – a ideal central entity for the phenomena of political-social life of which it is a part. Humanism in international relations, as a phrase, intuitively refers to the importance of man and universal human values in a field and in a plan reserved mainly for affirming and manifesting the existence and interests of state actors. But, in the concrete organization of this socio-political life of people, humanism seems to be marginal, if not in collision, with the principles and levers of the concrete functioning of the state, a power institution that governs over the community of citizens, which is not necessarily structured around the concept of the human being as it appears from a humanistic perspective. Humanitarian intervention is a relatively new concept, with academic origins placed at the beginning of the modern period, in the writings of classical theorists such as Hugo Grotius or Vattel. The expression "humanitarian intervention" also refers to humanitarian actions/missions/decisions/interventions, aimed at restoring a serious alteration, in a concrete political-state context, of the conditions that define the human being in its dignified existence and in accordance with certain current ethical, political, legal, socio-economic, medico-sanitary or environmental standards. Human rights constitute the theoretical umbrella under which these standards are placed, the violation of which in any state can be the trigger for an international humanitarian intervention.

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