Book Launch Series

Why do some humanitarian crises, like Kosovo and Libya, spur humanitarian military intervention, while others, such as Darfur or Myanmar, are relegated to the margins of global agendas? In her newest book, From Kosovo to Darfur, Sidita Kushi shows that this selectivity gap is not about geopolitical interests or humanitarian norms alone, but also about where crises occur and how they are perceived by Western political elites. Intrastate crises closer to the Western sphere and framed as genocide or systematic killing are more likely to prompt third-party intervention than distant crises narrated as identity-based civil wars. Drawing on new global data and case studies of Kosovo, Libya, and Darfur, this talk will unpack the regional biases, the politics of perception, and their consequences for understanding the humanitarian military intervention phenomenon.

Sidita Kushi, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Politics at Mount Holyoke College and a Non-Residential Fellow at the Center for Strategic Studies (CSS) at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. She previously served as Assistant Professor of Political Science at Bridgewater State University. She has also served as research director at the Center for Strategic Studies, where she led the Military Intervention Project (MIP). She is the author of Dying by the Sword: The Militarization of U.S. Foreign Policy (2023, Oxford University Press), From Kosovo to Darfur: The Regional Biases within Humanitarian Military Interventionism (2025, University of Michigan Press), and numerous academic articles on military interventions, intrastate conflict, and the gendered dynamics of economic crises, published in The Journal of Conflict Resolution, International Affairs, International Relations, Comparative European Politics, European Security, World Affairs, International Labour Review, amongst others. Sidita also contributes to public scholarship on the Western Balkans, U.S. foreign policy, and transatlantic security within outlets such as Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, MSNBC, Newsweek, and Al Jazeera.

Sidita holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Northeastern University, an M.A. in Political Science and Economics from Northeastern University, and a B.A. in Economics and International Studies from St. John Fisher University.