Hugo Grotius and International Relations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Hugo Grotius and International Relations - Essay Example "There are, however, themes which arise from Grotius's work which give shape to the contemporary discussion of human rights and intervention."2 One of these themes that arises is the connection between peace and liberty. Grotius felt that peace was necessary and integral to the development of liberty. Peace and liberty, therefore, were tenets that Grotius thought went hand in hand. Grotius thought that overall, countries' sovereignty was directly interrelated with whether or not there was peace around. Peace and liberty were, ultimately, Grotius's capstones necessary for ensuring that a society was a safe and promising place to live. Obviously, with the example that will be shown later on with the Bosnian War, Bosnia was neither a peaceful place to live, nor was it a place in which there was much liberty for anyone, especially during wartime. International law is complicated in Grotius's view. "The contemporary problem of humanitarian intervention is another difficult aspect of the same matter. In the Grotian view, humanitarian intervention could be a just war."3 However, if war is the only way to propagate peace, perhaps it might be one of the avenues that is seriously considered. Just war theory posits that there are in fact circumstances in which war is warranted for achieving certain purposes. If one nation is, for example, oppressing another nation or not recognizing its sovereignty, this might be a reason a nation would decide to go to war. There may be other mitigating circumstances which would allow for people to go to war. Just war theory is difficult to defend and it is even harder to defend when one is the nation against whom war is being declared. However, people must understand that they cannot singlehandedly take over other peoples' countries. One example is the Bosnian War. For example, several Bosniaks were taken advantage of in the Bosnian War. The Serbs and the Croats were pitted against the Bosniaks. The Serbians were the ones who were against the Bosni