10.4.5

Evaluating Military Interventions

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Evaluating the Costs and Benefits of Military Interventions

Military interventions, both direct and indirect, have a mixed record of success. The recent history of military interventions suggests that there are significant costs, including loss of sovereignty and human rights.

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Costs

  • The major cost of military interventions is the large numbers of deaths, civilian as well as personnel.
    • E.g. the war in Afghanistan is estimated to have caused 150,000 deaths.
  • Another cost is the number of refugees who have fled conflict zones.
    • E.g. 4 million people are thought to have fled Syria in recent years.
  • Another cost is the sheer devastation done to cities, towns and villages.
    • E.g. the almost total destruction of Aleppo with over 34000 buildings destroyed.
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Accuracy and benefits

  • Accurate figures for all of the costs cannot be determined.
  • They are estimates made by neutral IGOs and NGOs.
  • Benefits are also difficult to determine.
    • Protagonists often depend on the argument that things would have been worse without the intervention.

Non-military Interventions

Military interventions, both direct and indirect, have a mixed record of success.

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UN peacekeeping

  • UN peacekeeping is guided by three basic principles:
    • Consent of all parties in the conflict.
    • Impartiality.
    • Non-use of force except in self-defence.
  • The UN is able to draw on troops, police and some civilians from around the world to provide its peacekeeping forces.
  • The costs are shared by UN member states.
  • UN peacekeepers are asked to undertake a wide variety of tasks, from disarmament and reintegration of former combatants to helping to build sound governance and monitoring human rights
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Examples

  • Countries affected in the recent past include Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, Cambodia, El Salvador and Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
  • Successes and failures are difficult to determine; some say the intervention in Cote d’Ivoire was a success and that the intervention in Bosnia-Herzegovina (Srebrenica) was a catastrophic failure.

Non-intervention Instead of Military Intervention

Military interventions, both direct and indirect, have a mixed record of success. The recent history of military interventions suggests that there are significant costs, so sometimes non-intervention is chosen.

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Lack of action

  • One option is to ‘Turn a blind eye’ and do nothing.
  • Lack of action has global consequences which may impact negatively on progress in environmental, political and social development (poverty, human wellbeing and human rights).
  • An issue not covered by military interventions is the need for greater care of the environment.
  • Some suggest that a lack of action threatens the survival of the human race and so would make issues relating to human rights irrelevant.
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IS

  • Some suggest that the rise of IS (Daesh) is a salutary reminder of the dangers of doing nothing.
  • IS (Daesh) emerged in the aftermath of the chaos following the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.

Peacekeeping in Cote d'Ivoire

Peacekeeping in Cote d'Ivoire started in 2010 as a civil war broke out.

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Civil war

  • Cote d’Ivoire is a former French colony, gaining independence in 1960, with a mix of peoples of both Christian and Islamic faith.
  • In 2010 a Muslim president (Alassane Ouattara) was elected defeating the previous Christian president (Laurent Gbagbo).
  • Gbagbo refused to step down and a civil war ensued.
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UN Peacekeeping

  • The UN sent in a peacekeeping force to protect civilians, bring about disarmament and reintegration as well as protect human rights.
  • Gbagbo was arrested and handed over to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.
  • Tensions remain and thousands of UN blue-helmet troops are still in the country.

Jump to other topics

1Tectonic Processes & Hazards

2Option 2A: Glaciated Landscapes & Change

3Option 2B: Coastal Landscapes & Change

4Globalisation

5Option 4A: Regenerating Places

6Option 4B: Diverse Places

7The Water Cycle & Water Insecurity (A2 only)

8The Carbon Cycle & Energy Security (A2 only)

9Superpowers (A2 only)

10Option 8A: Health & Human Rights (A2 only)

11Option 8B: Migration & Identity (A2 only)

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