19. When, if ever, should states intervene in the internal affairs of other states to protect human rights? Are there rights that are more important than others? What are the costs and benefits for great powers intervening on behalf of human rights? It is difficult to answer these questions. Nobody wants to see any violation of human rights. However, the definition of what human rights are varies from country to country and even from individual to individual. What one nation deems to be a human right, another may not. Then there is the dilemma of a nation's sovereignty. If another nation decides which human rights are being violated and decides that it needs to intervene, then will another nation determine that the intervening nation needs intervention because of human rights violations? Finally there is the question of the intervention itself. Levels of intervention may vary and depend on human rights violations. More serious violations require more severe interventions. The first question to answer is whether states should ever intervene in the internal affairs of other states. The simple answer is that they should. The United States is founded on principles, many of which can be attributed to John Locke. In defining human rights, the Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson and inspired by Locke, states: “that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Freedom, and the pursuit of happiness: to guarantee these rights, governments are established among men. Locke used similar wording and added the simple answer to the intervention question. The primary responsibility that every individual has is self-preservation... at the heart of the card... plays an important role, as Locke explained. It is the responsibility of others to preserve life, only when they are not competing for their own. The final question is: should intervention take place in every case, including all cases of danger to human life? The answer is that it would probably be impossible to do. Department of Defense Works Cited. April 28, 2011. http://www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf (accessed April 28, 2011). Human Rights Watch. 18 August 2006. http://www.hrw.org/legacy/english/docs/2006/08/14/iraq13979.htm (accessed 28 April 2011). Locke, John. "Liberty Library of Constitutional Classics." Constitution Society. 1690. http://constitution.org/jl/2ndtr02.htm (accessed 28 April 2011).Ramstad, Evan and Jay Solomon. Wall Street Journal Online. August 5, 2009. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124938154079404323.html (accessed April 29, 2011).