Simon Jenkins presents the history of and the arguments surrounding intervention in Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. Do nations intervene because of right and wrong? Is it simply a form of 'imperialism-lite'? When is intervention justified? He traces the evolution of "liberal interventionism" and shows that scepticism towards it came and comes not just from a growing perception of its failure. He argues instead that it displays worrying signs of merely laundering old-fashioned western imperialism, bordering at times on a crusader complex