Why are human rights linked to interventionism?
Any modern society which wants to engage in a war of conquest would need an ideology of justification. If nation state is clearly the victim of an unprovoked attack by another state, then it can appeal to the idea of national self-defence. However, such unprovoked attacks are rare, and self-defence is inherently implausible for super-powers at war with small countries. A super-power can get involved in hostilities all over the planet, usually preceded by a complex chain of events. From its point of view, an ideology is needed to justify these wars, preferably all of them. Such an ideology should ideally meet some criteria. First, it should not be a simple appeal to self-interest. Simply stating We own the world! or We are the master race, submit to us! is not good propaganda. An appeal to higher values is preferable. Second, these higher values should be universal. This is why Islamism would probably fail as an interventionist ideology: it is specific to Islam. A geopolitical claim to
