The Purpose Of Intervention Finnemore

In “The Purpose of Intervention”, Finnemore aims to highlight the changes that have taken place in both global patterns of intervention and the ways in which international societal views of what constitutes the “legitimate” use of force, have evolved historically. Finnemore argues that while humanitarian intervention has continued to exist throughout history, the specific normative justifications surrounding it have changed.
She suggests that different understandings of peace and order have affected states' willingness to intervene forcibly in other states, and aims to describe how changing beliefs and norms are the cause. Finnemore’s main thesis is that realist theory cannot make sense of how modern day interventions take place, because the