Sahnoun explores issues surrounding military and humanitarian interventions in internal national conflicts. The author hopes that a better understanding of the sources and catalysts of internal conflicts will make us better able to craft effective preventative strategies. Presently, military intervention is widely accepted in two cases. The first is in cases of blatant aggression.
Military intervention is appropriate when the conflicting parties consent to it.
Sahnoun notes however that some nations fear that powerful members of the U.N. Security Council tend to overlook aggression when it is in their interests to do so. There is less agreement on humanitarian intervention. Recent U.N. interventions have suffered from a lack of clear goals. Sahnoun argues that specific moral goals cannot be formulated in advance of the situation. Each situation is unique and complex, and sometimes conflicting moral consideration will come into play.