Interview with Ramesh Thakur on R2P / US Civil-Military Relations and Multilateral Intervention

On November 9th 2015, Stife Journal and the US Foreign Policy Research Group hosted Dr. Stefano Recchia of Cambridge University to discuss his new book, “Reassuring the Reluctant Warriors: U.S. Civil-Military Relations and Multilateral Intervention” Dr. Recchia draws on declassified documents and about one hundred interviews with civilian and military leaders to illuminate little-known aspects of U.S. decision making in the run-up to those interventions. We spoke to him about his findings from researching the book, such as how military leaders in the US play a restraining role in decisions to intervene abroad, and I also asked about how he found researching the book with the generous access he had to officials. On November 12th 2015, Professor Ramesh Thakur came into King’s College London to give a talk on the evolution of humanitarian intervention into Responsibility to Protect, which was hosted by the Conflict, Security and Development Group. Ramesh Thakur is Professor in the Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University, and He also was Vice Rector and Senior Vice Rector of the United Nations University from 1998 to 2007. He was one of the principal authors of R2P, and with this in mind we asked him about the recent violence occurring in Burundi, the blockade of intervention in the United Nations Security Council, and the rise of peace operations since 2000. Jayne Peake provides details of next week's events. Presented by Xenia Zubova and Bradley Murray. DISCLAIMER: Any information, statements or opinions contained in this podcast are those of the individual speakers. They do not represent the opinions of the Department of War Studies or King's College London.