Intervention and State Sovereignty:

In the Winter 2002 edition of NATO Review, Gareth Evans, former foreign minister of Australia and co-chair the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, authored a very interesting article about how and when states and intergovernmental organizations should intervene on humanitarian grounds. The piece is one of the most prescient overviews of the issues regarding intervention in the affairs of sovereign states I've yet seen. He also accurately forecasts the central issue the U.N. now faces:

The first message is that if the Security Council fails to act, other states may act — and get it wrong. Such interventions, without the discipline and constraints of UN authorisation, may not be conducted for the right reasons or with the right commitment to the necessary precautionary principles. The second message is that if the Security Council fails to act, other states may act — and get it right. The ad hoc coalition or individual state may fully observe and respect all the necessary threshold and precautionary criteria, intervene successfully, and be seen to have done so by world public opinion — with this then likely to have enduringly serious consequences for the stature and credibility of the United Nations itself. That is pretty much what happened with the NATO intervention in Kosovo, and the United Nations cannot afford to drop the ball too many times on that scale.

Given the proximity of action in Iraq, I recommend the read to anyone who wants to thoughtfully consider either side of the Act / Inspect argument. You may also want to review the full ICISS report, which you can find here.