Just War or Aggressive Intervention?: The Just War Theory and the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen

摘要

The conflict in Yemen has been described as the largest humanitarian crisis of this century. International coverage of the situation, however, is limited, especially considering the Saudi-led coalition's intervention that started in March 2015. Some, however, have argued that the coalition has committed crimes in Yemen. In this article Just War Theory will be used to analyse the Saudi-led coalition's intervention in Yemen. Because of its moral focus Just War Theory can help leaders decide not if they could go to war, but rather if they should. By analysing the information that was available when the decision to intervene was made (jus ad bellum), and by looking at the execution of the intervention (jus in bello), we can get a more complete image of the intervention. Instead of determining whether the intervention is legal, this article analyses to what extent the Saudi-led coalition's intervention in Yemen is just.