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Air power has shown its usefulness throughout many wars and has been an effective tool for military interventions during the last decades. How airpower should be applied has been a highly debated topic for as long as it has been around. However, its use in humanitarian interventions is comparatively unresearched. One theorist that have received a lot of attention is John Warden and his five-ring-model.

The purpose of this thesis is to test Wardens theory in humanitarian interventions, in order to contribute with research on the use of airpower in humanitarian interventions. This thesis is a comparative case study examining two similar and successful humanitarian interventions, Operation Deliberate Force and Operation Odyssey Dawn/Unified Protector.

Results show that Wardens theory can not explain the success of the use of airpower in the operations. There are however some interesting similarities between the two operations that could be the key to success in humanitarian interventions. Further research is required to investigate this conclusion.