e Serb military campaign in the spring and summer of 1992, when most of the land grab took place. The result was a humanitarian tragedy of enormous dimensions. Those who did not escape became subject to a vicious policy of "ethnic cleansing." The humanitarian tragedy continued to build, even though the situation on the ground involved fewer changes in territorial control after late 1992. All sides targeted civilians, which made humanitarian operations exceedingly difficult despite the introduction of a U.N. force in late 1992. U.N.-EU mediation proved equally fruitless.
Humanitarian intervention thus led to political intervention, and political intervention by the strong in the affairs of the weak is as old as international politics itself. Whether, when, and how the strong intervene all depend on international norms concerning intervention and on national incentives to intervene. That is, intervention depends both on what the international community says and on what its member states want. The U.N. Security Council may authorize armed mediation, the est
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