Preventive Action for Refugee Producing Situations

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origin information work, with a new service now responsible for this
function, it has created rudimentary elements for early warning work
within the organization and is cooperating in a UN interagency
mechanism for this purpose. In addition, the High Commissioner is
receiving increased support from member states to focus on preventive
protection, with which is meant prevention of circumstances which force
people to leave, as another aspect of solutions.
Chapter 5 explores the anticipated objection to international
preventive actions. The objections are rebutted on the grounds that the
policy proposals do not foresee forcible intervention but are meant to help
persecuted people in distress before they are forced to become refugees.
The following three elements are invoked as a legal/political basis for
supporting the new approaches and policies: (1) the consensus of states on
the primacy of international obligations over national interests with
respect to policies and circumstances that create refugees; (2) the
development that massive violations of human rights are becoming
increasingly a matter of international concern; and (3) the recognition that
massive refugee flows can threaten international peace and security.
The study concludes that the international community should move
forcefully now, while almost global cooperation is possible, and the Cold
War over, to further strengthen the institutionalizing of new preventive
and interventionist approaches and policies to save lives, prevent future
abuses and forced population displacement.
Acknowledgments
I would like here to thank those without whose encouragement and support
this dissertation would not have been completed.
First of all, my thanks goes to my "Doktorvater" Jürgen Seifert, whose
support and judicious criticism have been a source of inspiration
throughout. He has shared his theoretical knowledge of and practical
commitment to the quest for change in the name of justice. I am grateful to
my other dissertation readers: David Kennedy, for his constant encouragement
that enabled me to persevere and Christian Riechers, for his
valuable suggestions. I am indebted to Rosemarie Rogers, for her
thoughtful comments. My appreciation for stimulation for the dissertation
goes to my professors before and during my five semesters at Harvard that
ultimately led to this dissertation.
Since a doctorate is the culmination of a long educational process -not
merely the end of graduate work but for me also a mid-career reflection -I
would like to thank all those, who, though they may not be aware of the
research I have been doing over the years, have nonetheless stimulated my
interest at critical junctures of my life long learning experience. So many
have inspired me in exchanges of ideas and discussions over the past years
of my academic and professional endeavors. I am indebted to many persons
who encouraged and helped me throughout this project and my career,
particularly those who generously granted me their time and their thoughts
in personal interviews. I gratefully acknowledge here the valuable
contributions of the interviewees, whose names are listed individually in the
Appendix. I would like especially to mention Theo van Boven, Lance
Clark, Guy Goodwin-Gill, Michel Moussalli, Berti Ramcharan, Zia Rizvi,
and Brian Urquhart. They have been most influential in the evolution of my
understanding and thinking about individual chapters of the dissertation.
My special thanks goes to Henry Steiner, Director of the Harvard Law
School Human Right Program (HLS/HRP), and Jack Tobin, its
Administrative Director for their encouragement to focus on the link of
human rights and refugee law during my time as Visiting Researcher at the
HLS/HRP; to Samuel Huntington, Director of the Center for International
Affairs, and Les Brown, Director of the CFIA Fellows Program and their
colleagues for their support, which allowed me to carry out my