Principal speaker
Dr Lee Morgenbesser and Dr Shannon Brincat
The Changing International Norms of Tyrannicide: US foreign policy, intervention and the killing of Heads of State
Presented by: Dr Shannon Brincat and Dr Lee Morgenbesser, Griffith Asia Institute
Thursday 30 November, 12:30pm - 1:50pm
N72, Meeting Room -1.18, Nathan Campus
To RSVP, please contact Belle Hammond on (07) 3735 4705 or b.hammond@griffith.edu.au by 5.00pm Monday 27 November 2014.
This paper explores the development of the norms governing the legitimacy of internationally assisted tyrannicide and assesses its growing legitimacy within contemporary world politics by focusing on US policy and practice of tyrannicide. It is argued that contemporary norms governing tyrannicide are coming closer to a conception that is accepting of the permissibility of targeted, politically motivated killings. This paper indicates several important aspects in the development of the norm regarding tyrannicide including its relation to the interests of the ruling classes and the benefit that this normative prohibition has provided for dominant states, relative to other states and international actors. The paper demonstrates empirical evidence that suggests a normative shift in the principles governing the legitimacy of tyrannicide in contemporary world politics, namely, the increasing use tyrannicide in the foreign policies of the US during the Cold War period and more recently, following its interventions in Iraq (2003) and Libya (2011) leading to the deaths of Saddam Hussein (2006) and Muammar Qaddafi (2011). Whereas the previous doctrine of ‘regime change’ had positioned democracy promotion as a key legitimation behind the removal of heads of state, it appears that this democratic benefit is no longer of concern for legitimizing practices of tyrannicide. Finally, the paper locates some theoretical reasons that suggest the increasing normative legitimacy of tyrannicide in contemporary international relations through the personal accountability of sovereigns in the post-Nuremburg world order and the doctrine of universal human rights. It closes by speculating on what this may mean for the fragile maintenance of liberal international world order.
Dr Shannon Brincat is a Griffith University Research Fellow. He is editor of the three volume series Communism in the 21st Century (Praeger, 2014) and was a co-editor of Critical Theory in International Relations and Security Studies: Interviews and Reflections (Routledge, 2012). He is also to co-founder and co-editor of the journal Global Discourse.
Dr Lee Morgenbesser was appointed as a Research Fellow at Griffith University in August 2014. His doctoral dissertation, which investigated why authoritarian regimes hold elections, is presently being reviewed for publication as a book. In 2012, he was the recipient of a Prime Minister's Australia Asia Award, which included a six month fellowship at the Department of Political Science, National University of Singapore.
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