James Q Wilson once said, “Man’s moral sense is not a strong beacon light…it is, rather, a small candle flame…flickering and sputtering in the strong winds of power and passion, greed and ideology” (Amstutz 9). Morality refers to a person’s values and beliefs about what is right and wrong, just and unjust, and fair and unfair. However, the concept of morality is more nuanced that its definition, given the multiple factors that inform a person’s moral compass—such as, their religion—and the many influences that cause a person’s moral candle flame to flicker and eventually die out, like power, greed, and ideology.
The concept of morality becomes all the more arduous when international relations scholars view the international community through …show more content…
The 1974 Federal Constitution of Yugoslavia granted Kosovo, a small province of Serbia, significant governmental autonomy; for millennia, the Kosovars and Serbs have maintained political and religious animosity, stemming from ethnic differences between the populations and naturally, the Serbian government viewed an autonomous Kosovo as a threat to their sovereignty (Amstutz 22). In 1988, the Serbian government suspended Kosovo’s political autonomy and responded to the formation of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in 1995 with widespread deportation and ethnic cleansing of the Kosovar people. By 1998, 250,000 Kosovars had been displaced and were facing inhumane living conditions (Amstutz 23). It was not until 1999, that the global community regarded the KLA-Serb conflict as deserving of international attention. The United Nations attempted to intervene in the civil conflict on behalf of the beleaguered and oppressed Kosovar people, but China and Russia staunchly opposed using force against Serbia—to do so would be to disregard the political sovereignty of Serbia’s government. The action, or rather inaction, of China and Russia was immoral in that, they valued the governmental autonomy of Serbia over the intrinsic worth and dignity of the Kosovar people. Finally, NATO initiated war with Serbia in order to relieve the Kosovars from immense suffering. If the international community had accomplished intervention at the beginning of the conflict, many Kosovar lives could have been saved from immeasurable strife and
The concept of morality becomes all the more arduous when international relations scholars view the international community through …show more content…
The 1974 Federal Constitution of Yugoslavia granted Kosovo, a small province of Serbia, significant governmental autonomy; for millennia, the Kosovars and Serbs have maintained political and religious animosity, stemming from ethnic differences between the populations and naturally, the Serbian government viewed an autonomous Kosovo as a threat to their sovereignty (Amstutz 22). In 1988, the Serbian government suspended Kosovo’s political autonomy and responded to the formation of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in 1995 with widespread deportation and ethnic cleansing of the Kosovar people. By 1998, 250,000 Kosovars had been displaced and were facing inhumane living conditions (Amstutz 23). It was not until 1999, that the global community regarded the KLA-Serb conflict as deserving of international attention. The United Nations attempted to intervene in the civil conflict on behalf of the beleaguered and oppressed Kosovar people, but China and Russia staunchly opposed using force against Serbia—to do so would be to disregard the political sovereignty of Serbia’s government. The action, or rather inaction, of China and Russia was immoral in that, they valued the governmental autonomy of Serbia over the intrinsic worth and dignity of the Kosovar people. Finally, NATO initiated war with Serbia in order to relieve the Kosovars from immense suffering. If the international community had accomplished intervention at the beginning of the conflict, many Kosovar lives could have been saved from immeasurable strife and