Introduction: Rhetoric and Reality

On 17 December 2010 Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old-street vendor, set himself alight outside the governor’s office in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia. Bouazizi, who later died from his injuries, sought to draw attention to his government’s corruption and mismanagement. Within weeks, a wave of protests swept across North Africa and the Middle East leading to the removal of the regimes in Tunisia and Egypt. While many leaders sought to preempt the protestors by initiating democratic reforms, others were less conciliatory. The subsequent violence which erupted in Libya, Bahrain, Syria and Yemen, pitted unelected governments and their powerful military against pro-democracy protestors. These images of violence reinvigorated the debate on humanitarian intervention. While this debate continues to rage, two things are clear: first, that humanitarian intervention remains a pertinent and emotive issue. Second, that there is still much that needs to be done to improve the international community’s response to intra-state crises.