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Interventionism, in international politics, is the interference of a state or group of states into the domestic affairs of another state for the purposes of coercing that state to do something or refrain from doing something. The intervention can be conducted through
military force A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily Weapon, armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable ...
or
economic coercion Coercion involves compelling a party to act in an involuntary manner through the use of threats, including threats to use force against that party. It involves a set of forceful actions which violate the free will of an individual in order to in ...
. A different term,
economic interventionism A market intervention is a policy or measure that modifies or interferes with a market, typically done in the form of state action, but also by philanthropic and political-action groups. Market interventions can be done for a number of reas ...
, refers to government interventions into markets at home. Military intervention, which is a common element of interventionism, has been defined by Martha Finnemore in the context of
international relations International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...
as "the deployment of military personnel across recognized boundaries for the purpose of determining the political authority structure in the target state". Interventions may be solely focused on altering political authority structures, or may be conducted for humanitarian purposes, or for debt collection. Interventionism has played a major role in the foreign policies of Western powers, particularly during and after the
Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...
. The
New Imperialism In History, historical contexts, New Imperialism characterizes a period of Colonialism, colonial expansion by European powers, the American imperialism, United States, and Empire of Japan, Japan during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. ...
era saw numerous interventions by Western nations in the
Global South Global North and Global South are terms that denote a method of grouping countries based on their defining characteristics with regard to socioeconomics and politics. According to UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Global South broadly com ...
, including the
Banana Wars The Banana Wars were a series of conflicts that consisted of military occupation, police action, and Interventionism (politics), intervention by the United States in Central America and the Caribbean between the end of the Spanish–American W ...
. Modern interventionism grew out of
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
policies, where the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
and the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
intervened in nations around the world to counter any influence held there by the other nation. Historians have noted that interventionism has always been a contentious political issue in the public opinion of countries which engaged in interventions. According to a dataset by Alexander Downes, 120 leaders were removed through foreign-imposed regime change between 1816 and 2011. A 2016 study by
Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...
political scientist Dov Haim Levin (who now teaches at the
University of Hong Kong The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is a public research university in Pokfulam, Hong Kong. It was founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese by the London Missionary Society and formally established as the University of ...
) found that the United States intervened in 81 foreign elections between 1946 and 2000, with the majority of those being through covert, rather than overt, actions. Multilateral interventions that include territorial governance by foreign institutions also include cases like
East Timor Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and ...
and
Kosovo Kosovo, officially the Republic of Kosovo, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe with International recognition of Kosovo, partial diplomatic recognition. It is bordered by Albania to the southwest, Montenegro to the west, Serbia to the ...
, and have been proposed (but were rejected) for the
Palestinian territories The occupied Palestinian territories, also referred to as the Palestinian territories, consist of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip—two regions of the former Mandate for Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine ...
. A 2021 review of the existing literature found that foreign interventions since World War II tend to overwhelmingly fail in achieving their purported objectives.


Foreign-imposed regime change

Studies by Alexander Downes, Lindsey O'Rourke, and Jonathan Monten indicate that foreign-imposed regime change seldom reduces the likelihood of civil war, violent removal of the newly imposed leader, and the probability of conflict between the intervening state and its adversaries, and does not increase the likelihood of
democratization Democratization, or democratisation, is the structural government transition from an democratic transition, authoritarian government to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction ...
unless regime change comes with pro-democratic institutional changes in countries with favorable conditions for democracy. Downes argues: Research by Nigel Lo, Barry Hashimoto, and
Dan Reiter Dan Reiter (born 29 September 1967, in Ann Arbor, Michigan) is an American political scientist. He is currently the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor at the Department of Political Science at Emory University. Education Reiter received his B.A. wit ...
has contrasting findings, as they find that interstate "peace following wars last longer when the war ends in foreign-imposed regime change". However, research by Reiter and Goran Peic finds that foreign-imposed regime change can raise the probability of civil war.


By country


China


Cuba


Egypt

Egypt has intervened in Libya.


Ethiopia

Ethiopia has intervened in Somalia.


France

France has intervened in Libya and in West Africa.


India

India has intervened in Sri Lanka.


Indonesia

Indonesia has intervened in East Timor.


Iran

Iran has intervened in Iraq and in Syria.


Israel


Nigeria

Nigeria has shown the will to intervene in the affairs of other sub Saharan African countries since independence. It is said that one of the reasons Yakubu Gowon was removed from office had been the squandering of Nigeria's resources in such far-away lands as Grenada and Guyana, with no returns, economic or political for Nigeria. The philosophy of subsequent military governments in Nigeria was that in an increasingly interdependent world, a country cannot be an island.


Russia


Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has led interventions in Bahrain and in Yemen.


Soviet Union


Turkey

Turkey has intervened in Cyprus, in Libya and in Syria.


United Arab Emirates

The UAE has intervened in Sudan and in Yemen.


United States


See also

*
Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War The Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War consisted of a series of multi-national military expeditions that began in 1918. The initial impetus behind the interventions was to secure munitions and supply depots from falling into the German ...
*
Counterinsurgency Counterinsurgency (COIN, or NATO spelling counter-insurgency) is "the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces". The Oxford English Dictionary defines counterinsurgency as any "military or political action taken against the ac ...
*
Democracy promotion Democracy promotion, also referred to as democracy building, can be domestic policy to increase the quality of already existing democracy or a strand of foreign policy adopted by governments and international organizations that seek to support t ...
*
Economic sanctions Economic sanctions or embargoes are Commerce, commercial and Finance, financial penalties applied by states or institutions against states, groups, or individuals. Economic sanctions are a form of Coercion (international relations), coercion tha ...
*
Embargo Economic sanctions or embargoes are commercial and financial penalties applied by states or institutions against states, groups, or individuals. Economic sanctions are a form of coercion that attempts to get an actor to change its behavior throu ...
* Exporting the revolution *
Foreign involvement in the Syrian Civil War Foreign involvement in the Syrian civil war refers to political, military and operational support to parties involved in the ongoing Syrian Civil War, conflict in Syria that began in March 2011, as well as active foreign involvement. Most ...
* Gun boat diplomacy * Global policeman *
Humanitarian intervention Humanitarian intervention is the Use of force in international law, use or threat of military force by a state (or states) across borders with the intent of ending severe and widespread human rights violations in a state which has not given permi ...
* International military intervention against ISIL *
International isolation International isolation is a penalty applied by the international community or a sizeable or powerful group of countries, like the United Nations, towards one nation, government or group of people. The same term may also refer to the state a cou ...
*
International relations theory International relations theory is the study of international relations (IR) from a theoretical perspective. It seeks to explain behaviors and outcomes in international politics. The three most prominent School of thought, schools of thought are ...
*
Isolationism Isolationism is a term used to refer to a political philosophy advocating a foreign policy that opposes involvement in the political affairs, and especially the wars, of other countries. Thus, isolationism fundamentally advocates neutrality an ...
*
Liberal hawk The term liberal hawk refers to a politically liberal person (generally, in Modern liberalism in the United States, the American sense of the term) who supports a hawkish, Interventionism (politics), interventionist foreign policy. Overview Past ...
*
Liberal internationalism Liberal internationalism is a foreign policy doctrine that supports international institutions, open markets, cooperative security, and liberal democracy. At its core, it holds that states should participate in international institutions that up ...
*
Military occupation Military occupation, also called belligerent occupation or simply occupation, is temporary hostile control exerted by a ruling power's military apparatus over a sovereign territory that is outside of the legal boundaries of that ruling pow ...
*
Multilateralism In international relations, multilateralism refers to an alliance of multiple countries pursuing a common goal. Multilateralism is based on the principles of inclusivity, equality, and cooperation, and aims to foster a more peaceful, prosperous, an ...
*
Neoconservatism Neoconservatism (colloquially neocon) is a political movement which began in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist Democratic Party along with the growing New Left and ...
*
Non-interventionism Non-interventionism or non-intervention is commonly understood as "a foreign policy of political or military non-involvement in foreign relations or in other countries' internal affairs". This is based on the grounds that a state should not inter ...
* Pacification *
Peacekeeping Peacekeeping comprises activities, especially military ones, intended to create conditions that favor lasting peace. Research generally finds that peacekeeping reduces civilian and battlefield deaths, as well as reduces the risk of renewed w ...
*
Peace enforcement Peace enforcement is the use of various tactics, most notably military force to compel peace in a conflict, generally against the will of combatants. Peace enforcement missions permit the use of non-defensive armed force, unlike peacekeeping opera ...
* Peacemaker *
Peace makers Peacemakers are individuals and organizations involved in peacemaking, often in countries affected by war, violent conflict, and political instability. They engage in processes such as negotiation, mediation, conciliation, and arbitration—drawing ...
*
Peacemaking Peacemaking is a practical conflict transformation focused upon establishing equitable power relationships robust enough to forestall future conflict, often including the establishment of means of agreeing on ethical decisions within a communit ...
*
Police action In security studies and international relations, a police action is a military action undertaken without a formal declaration of war. In the 21st century, the term has been largely supplanted by " counter-insurgency". Since World War II, formal ...
*
Sakoku is the most common name for the isolationist foreign policy of the Japanese Tokugawa shogunate under which, during the Edo period (from 1603 to 1868), relations and trade between Japan and other countries were severely limited, and almost all ...
*
Unilateralism __NOTOC__ Unilateralism is any doctrine or agenda that supports one-sided action. Such action may be in disregard for other parties, or as an expression of a commitment toward a direction which other parties may find disagreeable. As a word, ''un ...
* War hawk * White man's burden


References


Further reading

* Kupchan, Charles A. ''Isolationism: A History of America's Efforts to Shield Itself from the World'' (Oxford University Press, 2020). * Lee, Melissa M. 2020. ''Crippling Leviathan: How Foreign Subversion Weakens the State''. Princeton University Press.


External links


Interventionism (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Empirical Knowledge on Foreign Military Intervention (Oxford Encyclopedia of Empirical International Relations Theory)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Interventionism (politics) Geopolitical terminology International relations theory Political science terminology