Decisionmaking analysis and simulation: the novel concept of “Humanitarian intervention” in international relations

The cases of Somalia and Bosnia-Herzegovina are examined here. In systemic terminology, dimensionality and both hard and soft variables raised the level of complexity of the decision processes involved. By the early 1990s, ethnic strife in Bosnia-Herzegovina and anarchy and famine in Somalia, together with major violations of human rights in both these areas, caused a radical change in attitude among governments of the major democracies as well as in both the Security Council and General Assembly of the United Nations. The decisional procedure involved needed to take into account a host of problems: historical, political and geopolitical, social and cultural, military, economic and environmental. These factors added dimensions of complexity sometimes bordering on chaos, portraying much contemporary decision-making in the search for justice and equitable resolution of conflict