Institutions to Prevent Genocide

How do we prevent genocide?:

Increasingly, advocates of humanitarian intervention are discussing not only the need for political will to take such action, but the need to have a way to act. Without effective mechanisms, any number of resolutions will be rendered meaningless. And the absence of practical means also makes it harder to marshal the political will.

"The problem with most discussions of political will is that we spend more time lamenting its absence than organizing its presence," Mark Schneider, senior vice president of the International Crisis Group, said last year. Political will needs to be linked to "having an institutional focal point for prevention," he said, and that "focal point" should be able to deploy force.

The author suggests giving the UN autonomous authority to act, or giving authority to regional organizations. He also notes many nations oppose autonomous UN action and regional authorities are not guaranteed to get involved early. Eventually it takes domestic political will in key countries to get around the political stalling in the international community.