Military Intervention in Africa after the Cold War

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Military intervention remains controversial when it happens, as well as when it fails to. Sincethe end of the Cold War, military intervention has attracted much scholarly interest, and it wasdemonstrated that several instances of the use of force or the threat to use force withoutSecurity Council endorsement were acceptable and necessary. Matters of national sovereigntyare the fundamental principle on which the international order was founded since the Treaty ofWestphalia. Territorial integrity of states and non-interference in their domestic affairs, remainthe foundation of international law, codified by the United Nations Charter, and one of theinternational community's decisive factors in choosing between action and non-intervention.Nonetheless, since the end of the Cold War matters of sovereignty and non-interference havebeen challenged by the emergent human rights discourse amidst genocide and war crimes.The aim of this study is to explain the extent to which military intervention in Africa hasevolved since the end of the Cold War, in terms of theory, practice and how it unfolded uponthe African continent. This will be achieved, by focusing on both successful and unsuccessfulcases of military intervention in Africa. The unsuccessful cases being Somalia in 1992,Rwanda in 1994, and Darfur in 2003; and the successful cases being Sierra Leone in 2000 andthe Comoros in 2008. The objective of this study is fourfold: firstly it seeks to examine thetheoretical developments underpinning military intervention after the end of the Cold War;secondly, to describe the evolution of military intervention from a unilateral realist to a moremultilateral idealist profile; thirdly, to demarcate the involvement in military intervention inAfrica by states as well as organisations such as the AU and the UN and finally, discerning thecontributions and the dilemmas presented by interventions in African conflicts and how Africacan emerge and benefit from military interventions.The intervention in Somalia produced a litmus test for post-Cold War interventions and thedeparture point for their ensuing evolution. Rwanda ensued after Somalia, illustrating thedisinclination to intervene that featured during this episode. Darfur marked the keenness of theAU to intervene in contrast with the ensuing debates at the Security Council over naming thecrime whether or not 'genocide was unfolding in Darfur. Positively though, the interventionby Britain in Sierra Leone and the AU intervention in the Comoros are clear illustrations ofhow those intervening, were articulate in what they intend to do and their subsequent success.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University