Transnational Appeals for Humanitarian Intervention in Europe’s Civil – and Imperial – Wars

This article examines transnational appeals for humanitarian intervention to the League of Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the aftermath of the First World War, focusing on conflicts in Ireland, Montenegro, and the Rif (Morocco). It analyses how participants and international organisations strategically framed these conflicts, often shifting between designations of ‘civil war’ and ‘imperial war’ to solicit or deflect intervention on humanitarian grounds. Despite public expectations placed on the ICRC and League, both organisations were reluctant to intervene against imperial powers, prioritising maintaining the international order over investigating insurgent's claims. Though insurgents appealed through the rhetoric of 'humanity', this was a selective category, reinforcing existing racial and religious hierarchies in Europe. Taken together, these conflicts demonstrate that 'civil war' was not a fixed category but a fluid and contested concept, instrumentally deployed in the dialogue between belligerents, international organisations, and imperial powers.