Quand intervenir ? Le critère du dernier recours dans la théorie de l’intervention humanitaire

There is a widespread agreement that any military intervention, even when justified on humanitarian grounds, should be conducted "as a last resort". But what is last resort? This article highlights the epistemological problems in this classic criterion of the just war doctrine, which is also counter-intuitive when facing a humanitarian emergency: exhausting all other measures, isn’t that losing precious time? This criterion is also problematic in that it implies that the use of military force is always the worst option, which is not necessarily the case. This article corrects and reformulates the principle of last resort into one of the least bad option, within the framework of a realist ethics of the lesser evil.